The virgin birth was a paradox. I do not believe that Jesus was any part of Mary. That was not His mother. It was a woman that God used for that purpose, a incubator to bear His Child. If Mary… If the seed of the woman, which, she is the egg and the man has the hemoglobin… If that’s right, doctor, and (See?) the—the blood. The life lays in the blood cell.                                  62-0128A – William Marrion Branham

As Mary looked down into His eyes in the swaddling cloth, she did her best to smile. The stench of the animals was making them all gag. She blinked away tears as she looked over at Joseph who smiled back at her. The last year replaying in her mind as she looked around. The laughter and happiness as she discussed being espoused, learning about the man she would call her husband, Joseph of Galilee. The Angel that had visited him too gave her a companion and a confidante in her struggles, once he could see the truth for himself. They had tried to follow God’s will to give birth to the baby. Yet they felt lost and worried, sitting in a borrowed stable in a strange town. Surely this wasn’t the place God had planned to come to man in. She must have missed something. In the midst of this doubt, there was a knock on the door.

As Joseph opened the doors and a group of dirty shepherds made their way in, the confusion grew. These men had been visited too, more recently, telling them to come, see, and worship. The shepherds didn’t seem sure of themselves, being grown men told to go find the son of God and worship Him. What they found was a confused couple worried about messing up God’s plan and a newborn baby. But as the pieces started to fall into place, it was more and more apparent how these strangers had been brought together as pieces of a bigger plan and the roles they had been given.

We glorify the people in the Bible like fantasy characters, but if we really believe them to be true stories, then they were human just like us. They had to have been flesh and blood people. They used the bathroom, tripped and fell, broke things, told bad jokes, laughed at the wrong times, had no clue what was happening. A lot of times, we imagine Jesus walking around with twelve saints and how they spoke of the Lord and His awesome power. I’ve never seen thirteen men stay focused on one topic for more any amount of time, and they had to have cracked jokes, ones that would make you groan.  When you’re friends with someone for that long, there are running jokes and looks that they share in a way that we experience every day. When we talk about being close to God and talking to Him one on one, so often we think it has to be a formal black tie event. Do you think Peter ever asked Jesus if he could make a million shekels appear? Who wouldn’t ask just once? Jesus came to this earth to live life like us, for the son of God to not only suffer a death that was miserable, but to live and play in the dirt as we do. When I was a youth minister, it was remarkable to see how quickly the kids could relate to things in the Bible when they felt like Jesus really was one of us and not only suffered with us, but laughed with us. Suddenly the Bible actually meant something. God lived among us, His people who were created in His image, and we can be people just like they were, following His plan.

And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.                                                                                                            – Luke 1:30-31