It is a story that taxes our imagination—this story of God taking human flesh, of God becoming one with us.
Who but God would choose to enter human life in an insignificant village in an out-of-the-way corner of occupied Palestine, born to a humble mother who, in the eyes of the world, displays questionable virtue?
The birth is heralded, not to the movers and shakers of the day, but to a lowly group of shepherds.
It’s a story that demands eyes of faith, a story that prods us to see what most people do not see, a story that challenges us to envision what few people would envision.
And that is what repentance enables us to do, to see life with fresh eyes, to notice what others ignore.
Henri Nouwen has something similar in mind when writing some years ago in Gracias!, a journal of his experiences in Latin America. Nouwen writes —
“The small child of Bethlehem, the unknown young man of Nazareth, the rejected preacher, the naked man on the cross, HE asks for my full attention.
“The work of our salvation takes place in the midst of a world that continues to shout, scream, and overwhelm us with its claims and promises.
“But the promise is hidden in the shoot that sprouts from the stump, a shoot that hardly anyone notices.”
Thanks to Joel D. Kline
What about Jesus being born in Bethlehem taxes YOUR imagination?
WE HAVE GOD’S JOY IN OUR BLOOD!!!
