A little girl who was given an assignment to write an essay on birth went home and asked her mother how she had been born. Her mother said, “The stork brought you, darling, and left you on the doorstep.”
Continuing her research she asked her dad how he’d been born. Being in the middle of something, her father similarly deflected the question by saying, “I was found in the middle of the garden. The fairies brought me.”
Then the girl went and asked her grandmother how she had arrived. “I was picked from a gooseberry bush,” said Grandma.
Armed with this information the girl wrote her essay. When the teacher asked her later to read it in front of the class, she stood up and began, “There has not been a natural birth in our family for three generations.”
The virgin birth of Jesus is as unnatural of a birth as you can find, as the very grace of God itself is unnatural
Joseph, the legal father of Jesus, and Mary, the biological mother of Jesus, were both descendants of David. Therefore, Jesus was born as a human descendant of David. Nothing unnatural about that, at least on the surface.
However, something very bizarre and unnatural was going on. “Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:18).
So Jesus is the human Son of David and the divine Son of God. As God he can do anything, including a virgin birth and rising from the dead and forgiving sins. As a human being he can experience everything, including pain, loneliness, fear and especially guilt. In the virgin-born Jesus your guilt belongs to God, not to you. Your pain, loneliness, and fear belong to God, not you.
Unnatural? Of course, that’s why Christmas is a miracle.
PRAYER: Dearest Savior, God from eternity and Man from the virgin birth, how far beyond my imagination is the reality of your human and divine natures both existing in one person. But I believe this miracle with all my heart, knowing that I need this miracle to be forgiven and to be fulfilled today. Amen.
FURTHER MEDITATION: Meditate today on a short list of some of your favorite Christmas carols. Which of these best express the truth that Jesus is both human and divine in one person? Go ahead and sing!