Where was God that first Christmas? As I read the Christmas story, I find myself wondering about many of the things that happened that could have been different, alleviating a lot of pain, grief and difficulty.
- Where was God when Joseph and Mary needed a room? I have heard many testimonies about answered prayer for a parking space or finding just the right home for a family.
- Where was God when the order was given to slaughter every baby boy under age 2? A simple intervention with Herod could have saved a lot of grief.
- What about Joseph? The poor guy. First the love of his life is pregnant by someone else, no honeymoon. Then to top it off, he goes to pay his taxes only to be deterred for over two years before he gets back home. God really was smiling down on him.
- Wasn’t God kind of harsh on Zachariah? All Zachariah did was ask some clarifying questions.
- I wonder if an angel also showed up at Mary’s parents’ bedside. It sure would have been nice of God to do that for Mary. I have a hunch her trip to the hill country to visit her aunt and uncle was more than just a family get together.
- Could the census have been taken at any other time? It would have been easier for Joseph and Mary if the counting would have happened a year earlier or later?
I am not trying to be cynical and understand the importance of fulfilling prophecy. I am just wondering about the ways of God.
The words from Isaiah 55:8-9 are true, and they keep ringing in my ear this Christmas. “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.'”
Yes, God’s ways are so different from mine. How God does things and how I want them done are certainly different. The distance between the heavens and the earth is quite far, making his ways literally “otherworld ways.”
I have come to understand God is not a riddle to be solved but a mystery to embrace. And the more I think about it, the more I realize that I do not want to serve a God who I understand. My capacity to understand is so limited and if I could understand God, he would be a very small God.
I have come to realize God is sovereign, a truth I do not understand. He either is sovereign over all things, or he is not sovereign at all. I believe he is sovereign over all things, especially those that I do not understand.
As Joseph says in the song recorded by the singing group 4Him:
Why me, I’m just a simple man of trade
Why Him with all the rulers in the world
Why here inside this stable filled with hay
Why her, she’s just an ordinary girl
Now I’m not one to second guess
What angels have to say
But this is such a strange way to save the world
This Christmas I am embracing the mystery of God. I am thankful that he is sovereign over all things. Whatever change, pain or disruption we face in life, I encourage us to embrace the mystery of the ways of God.
Jules Glanzer served as president of Tabor College for 14 years. He and his wife, Peg, have three grown children who are married and nine grandchildren.
