Reflecting on the Christmas story this morning it struck me again - and somehow in a new way - how strange and wonderful the whole thing is. A poor young woman, thought by many to be carrying an "illegitimate" baby, travels a long journey in winter to find rejection instead of warm, welcoming care for her first delivery. Then the first people to mysteriously get an inkling of something divinely important going on are the rough old guys out in the paddocks. But they take the idea seriously and follow it up enough to find - well - nothing that matched angels and glory. Yet in the vulnerability of the little family "out the back" there was an intangible "something" that changed their lives. Later, at the opposite end of the social spectrum, there are astrologers following stars... and for all their rich gifts, being brought to their knees in worship.
I know it has all been said before but it's true - God chose, and chooses, to be revealed in a context of poverty, misunderstanding, rejection, vulnerability ... and recognised by those who, to our proud minds, are the least likely characters. Who would have thought that "the shearing gang" and "those New Age types" would be among the first to receive the gift and wonder of the first Christmas? I feel both awed and humbled and I hope I can look in the right places for Jesus this Christmas.
