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 dad 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. That’s something to contemplate at Christmas time!
Joseph, the legal father of Jesus, and Mary, the biological mother of Jesus, were both descendants of David and, therefore, Jesus was born as a human descendant of David. Nothing unnatural about that, except …
Joseph and Mary hadn’t yet come together in marriage so Mary couldn’t be pregnant—except, she was! No storks, fairies, or gooseberry bushes either. Mary became miraculously pregnant by the power of God the Holy Spirit so that she, a virgin, would give birth not just to a human being but to a human being who was also God.
That’s unnatural! Virgins don’t give birth! And God is not a person! Except when the grace of God is involved. Because the grace of God is so unnatural.
It’s unnatural for people who sin against God and let him down too much to receive his faithful, forgiving love. It’s unnatural for people who forget about God too often to have God answer a prayer when they suddenly remember they need something. It’s unnatural for people who carelessly go through the half-motions of everyday Christian behavior to be assured of God’s full faithfulness and even delight.
It took an unnatural Savior to make unnatural grace real, “who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, and who as to his spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God” (Romans 1:2).
In the virgin-born Jesus your guilt belongs to God, not to you. Your pain, loneliness, and fear belong to God, not you. Your destiny is in the hands of God, not yours alone.
Unnatural? Of course, that’s why Christmas is a miracle. Still today. Even in you.
PRAYER: Dear Jesus, God from eternity and Man from the virgin birth, your human and divine natures both exist in one person. I believe this miracle! Make my heart, as much as your manger, the place of your saving work this Christmas. Amen.
EVANGELISM ACTION: Who can you invite to church this Christmas? If you’re local to CrossLife Church in Pflugerville, share this link https://crosslifepf.org/christmas/.