God's Strange Ways

I was looking at my little manger scene today and suddenly thought about how odd that situation was. First, the mom carrying the baby, whom we regard as one of the holiest women ever, was carrying a baby that her husband had not implanted. Then, they are ready for the birth of God's Christ, a holy event, and the great miracle of all time, and they have not even a room in the hotel. So they are given a place at a barn with animals! And there the mom gives birth and shortly thereafter, some shepherds come to visit them only because they can read the stars, and hear heavenly angels and also believe in ancient scriptures, and soon after also, three men from the East come with expensive gifts for this child because they also read the stars and believe in ancient scriptures, and the guy who is the leader of the country, Herod, wants to kill all first born boys because of this one little boy, who he wants to destroy. It's important to recognize several things about this story. One, that Herod was behind schedule. He set out to destroy those first born boys, but too late to kill Christ, which is an important thing to know about Satan. Christ lived, died according to the plan of redemption and rose again, but his whole life, his entry to this world was against all odds. Why is it God seems to like to work in this way? Joseph had a dream that told him to get out of Bethlehem and run to Egypt. His ability to hear the voice of God was absolutely essential at that moment. But by obeying that voice, he was ahead of Herod's schedule. Another important part of this story is the animals. Interesting that God saw animals as better company than the people in the Inn. And that makes sense--they lack human evil.