My family and I went to Worship Service at our church on Christmas morning and it was good.

Very good. Lots of food for thought.

The Christmas story was read from Luke 2; every other verse or so we stopped and sang a carol.

Parts of the "story" that amaze me. Not that God sent His Son (that does amaze me) - but that the second Person of the Trinity - Almighty God! came to earth in what the pastor called the "great descent"

The timing and circumstances of the greatest event in history are amazing also.

The world that Jesus was born into was under the thumb of the Roman Empire. There had been great turmoil for centuries, but only a few decades before the birth of Jesus, the Empire entered a time of relative peace, "pax Romana". Roads were built and travel was, for the most part, safe.

The life that Jesus was born into was as shameful as the death that He died. The "birthing room" was more of a cave and the "manger" was probably more like a hole in the ground.

Christ chose to start at the beginning, like we do. Why?

Through Christ, we have a complete connection to God. Christ is our only mediator; we need no other.

Through Christ, there is a radical redemption. Being reformed, I understand that "redemption", like in a pawn shop, means that He came to redeem that which was His.

And, through Christ, we become like Mary. Human, born into sin. Like Mary - a peasant girl - it makes no difference what our background is. Like Mary - unmarried and pregnant - our past doesn't matter.

Like Mary, when the Holy Spirit does His work in our lives, the seed is in us. We, like Mary, become a miraculous vessel of the message of salvation.