In his sermon Sunday, Dr. Slater of Wake Forest Baptist Church used the phrase referenced in the title of this column to speak of the many facets of Christmas—especially those surrounding Joseph—that seem so odd to the coldly logical mind.
Later in the day I was reminded of many of these thoughts during our FBC Sunday evening prayer group when Lois Hagen prayed something like “God, we would not have chosen a little-known town and certainly not a borrowed stable for the birth of a King, nor would we have chosen an unwed teenager to be His mother.”
No....And we probably wouldn’t have chosen to send our Son as a helpless infant at all, even into a palace setting.
But how else could that Son-King fully identify with us, whether baby, child, teen, or adult, if He had not so come, going through all the stages of ‘ages,’ each with its own set of ‘growing pains’?
How else could Jesus identify with us in such conditions as poverty; homelessness; being low on the social totem pole; struggling to make ends meet and still have enough left over to pay ever-increasing taxes, used not to benefit ourselves, but to fund causes we are find morally repugnant?
How else could He identify with the anguish of those oppressed under tyrannous foreigners who do not share the same belief or value systems as the country previously held to? Or with those dispossessed in other ways, such as the Nobel Peace Prize-holder held as a political ‘prisoner’ in her own land (Myanmar)? Or with those who, as in Iran, are cruelly ‘silenced’ when they attempt dissent?
How else could He identify with the shunning suffered by innocent “illegitimate” children whose mothers are accused of ‘playing around’ before the child’s birth? Whose mothers aren’t ‘good’ girls by the prevailing moral standards of the day, and therefore their children are considered ‘bad.’? How else identify with being an illegal ‘alien’ (Which He was in Egypt for a short while as a young child?
I could go on and on with the odd ways God used His unique Christmas plan to invade not just ordinary human lives in supernatural ways with eternal benefit, but invaded Life itself.
The Wise Men saw what others either did not see or paid no heed to...and were led to a King. (The Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship continues to remind that “Wise men [and women] still follow the Star.”)
The lowly shepherds (only lepers, tax-collectors, and workers with animal-skins were lower in social caste) were the first to hear the calendar-changing announcement “Unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior Who is Christ the Lord” —and to hear the ensuing angelic concert of pure joy.
The unnamed innkeeper is forever (and quite unfairly) remembered, not for his compassionate offer of his stable, but for failing to offering a vacant room he did not have, (reminder that our part in fulfilling divine assignments may be unfairly attacked because it is ‘misread.’), yet he did provide the birthplace of the King.
But the oddness of God, His nature and His ways, is not merely a Christmas ‘thing’ of external events. He is eternal, yet interested in the daily round of our lives; all-powerful, yet mindful of our frail limits; complete within Himself, yet longs for our companionship; Giver of every good and perfect gift,” yet yearns for the gift of our heart.
Have a good week...and consider “How odd of God” to be as He is, do as He does!!
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