The other night we were decorating the living room for Christmas. We decorated the tree with lights, bulbs, memorabilia, etc… Then we placed a Nativity Scene on the piano. It has a fairly authentic manger scene with a stable made of wood with grass or thatch on the roof. Mary and Joseph are there with the baby; a couple of shepherds are there, one holding a lamb, and a donkey that Mary had ridden. It is not a very large set and did not take up much of the piano top. My wife, ever the decorator, asked if we needed to add anything to the piano top. All of us looked at it for a moment, then we all said no. It made me stop and ponder; God keeps things simple so we can’t miss what is important. Man on the other hand has to make large announcements, and use fireworks or other glitzy things to grab our attention.
Nothing about the birth of Christ is ordinary, except the actual birth. The story is simple but is the biggest thing to happen to this world until the cross and resurrection of Christ. The story is so simple it forces you to decide whether it was true or not, no middle ground, no gray area. God wants a relationship with man, a simple concept, but hardly anything anyone would call normal. That is the point, love and grace are simple to see but hard to fathom.