God lives in a common world among common people

Luke 1:35: And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

At Christmas, our tendency is to romanticize the story of Jesus. We sing about the angels and wise men and all the familiar elements of the story. But the truth is that, from the outside looking in, the birth of Jesus wasn’t that impressive.

He was born in a barn in a tiny town as a common baby of unimpressive circumstances. There’s nothing romantic about that.

That’s why the Jewish people missed the Messiah. They were waiting for some great, regal event in which the long-awaited Messiah paraded himself into Jerusalem.

But God is cloaked in the…