This Christmas, Ivan and I are starting each day by listening to a Christmas song on Spotify and reading two Christmas carols from our hymnal. (We’re reading two a day because we’d like to make it through the entire repertoire by Christmas). This has reminded me just how transformative it can be to start the day with praise as well as prayer and Bible reading. It’s also been delightful to juxtapose old favorites with contemporary Christmas songs. We’re making some wonderful discoveries!

I wanted to share this song with you today because I feel it captures a raw, human element of the Nativity scene that can be easy to gloss over. While it’s true that none of us knows for sure what Mary and Joseph’s actual experience was like, I think good art gives us space to highlight both certainties and possibilities for the sake of appreciating truth more deeply.

Based on what Mary and Joseph were told – Jesus was God’s own Son – as well as what they were not told – how they would raise such a miraculous child after his apparently “scandalous” conception – they likely experienced a degree of uncertainty along with awe and wonder at His birth. I think this song is a beautiful depiction of this possibility, and also an encouragement to us today that, aside from Jesus, who was God in human form, the Lord has always used finite humans to accomplish His redemptive work.

See you tomorrow!