I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas! It will never cease to amaze me that of all the ways God chose to enter the world, a poor couple in a stable was the preferred method. Given that the magic of Christmas is still celebrated around the world thousands of years later, this was clearly the correct choice, but it's not the one that I would've come up. I would've designed something different, based on human wisdom, and it would've failed.
The Gospels are simply unique, and the story is triumphant because God's wisdom is greater than our own. They are true, because they don't hide the bumps in the road that are part of every journey, but they show us the larger story arc winning out despite human weakness.
Take this short part of Mark, in the midst of Jesus being arrested. This is thought to be autobiographical, with Mark including this detail about his own flight to safety away from the soldiers. Mark was running for his life.
Why would you include this if you were making up a story? It's embarrassing. It's awkward. Mark is forever known as the guy who ran away naked rather than risk association with Jesus in the garden.
You'd only include it if it was true. You'd only include it if your failure had been redeemed by the love of one so powerful that even death itself is no longer a threat. You'd only include this if you were in a place where you could laugh at your weakness because human frailty doesn't matter anymore -- it's been covered by grace, and only hope and redemption matter now.
You'd only include this if you believed the truth of the Gospel had won the day. Thanks be to God that it has!
Merry Christmas!
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