The Glory of the Unlikely

Perhaps the great glory of Christmas is that in the birth of His only Begotten, the Lord revealed to us that He is the God of the "unlikely"...

For how unlikely it is that the King of the universe should be born in a stable normally reserved for the animals. How unlikely that the nation which had so long awaited her Messiah, should completely miss the fulfilment of her dreams, and reject her only salvation. How unlikely that this Messiah should live the great majority of His life in obscurity without the pomp and circumstance befitting Royalty. And perhaps most of all, how unlikely that such a One should die in shame and degradation, apparently discarded upon the trash heap of history, just another well-intentioned Zealot.

This is the glory of Christmas, a glory that fills the present as well as the past. For how unlikely that the humiliated is now the Glorified, and the possessor of that Name at which one day all will bow. How unlikely that Satan, who apparently destroyed Him, was and is the unwitting servant of the God who "works all things after the counsel of His own will." How unlikely indeed that tragedy should eternally breed triumph in the purposes of that One in whom all wisdom resides. And perhaps most of all, how incredibly unlikely that God Himself should deign to fill the seemingly marred, broken and useless vessels that we appear to be, that He might live His perfect, complete and loving life in us. How unlikely and how unspeakably wonderful that in our weakness, His strength is made perfect and that He actually needs us to be as we are that the glory of His Person alone might be revealed by us.

He is the God of the unlikely, the God who requires stables in which to birth His beloved rather than the pristine palaces we might anticipate. So let us expect to find Him there, in the stables of our lives and worlds, the circumstances, situations and people where we least expect Him to be. Indeed, let us see that the glory of His presence is most often in direct proportion to the appearance of His absence, and let us rejoice that Christmas above all proclaims that we have found the King of the universe in the most unlikely place of all....our own lives if we have accepted Him as our Saviour.

Here we are carol singing to the neighbours before returning to one of our homes for a Christmas buffet, after which we had a visit from Santa. I received a DVD of "Analyse This" and Alan received an enormous mug apparently for a 'budding gardener' depicting Santa battling with the weeds. Prophetic? I think not!

I never realised, that the man who always manages to inadvertedly appear in so many of my photos, is actually Father Christmas!

I do sincerely hope that all my blogging friends out there have a very happy and peaceful Christmas.