The Supernatural

A friend spent time in China and the hardest part of communication about faith issues was that most of the Chinese she spoke to had no frame of reference. Most had not had contact with anything remotely having to do with Christianity. No stories, no scripture, no phrases or words.

Our stepping off point in a conversation assumes you have some sort of working knowledge about what I’m talking about. They had none when it came to Christ.

So I was thinking about the story regarding the events leading up to and including Jesus’ birth and how they would sound to say, someone from China who had never heard any of this … it was brand new information. How would he respond to the telling of my story.

An angel, a heavenly being appeared to Mary, a virgin and told her she would give birth to a child who was the son of God, the anticipated Messiah or Savior. This would not be accomplished by sex with a man, but the Holy Spirit would “come upon her.” At this point, he just tells Mary.

She goes to tell her cousin who does not know she is pregnant. On seeing her, the cousin proclaims her joy that Mary is the mother of “her Lord.”

The guy Mary is engaged to is obviously very fond of her but decides to secretly break up with her upon hearing the news of her pregnancy until….an angel appears to him and corroborates Mary’s story.

The government decides to take a census which requires travel to your ancestral home. It occurs at the exact time of Jesus’ birth in a small town foretold as the Messiah’s birthplace, 700 yrs prior.

Not just one angel, but a multitude of angels show up to tell a band of shepherds that Jesus has been born and direct them to him.

When Jesus is 40 days old, his parents take him to the temple and when they walk in, an old Jewish man walks up, takes the baby and tells them he’s been waiting to see their child because he is the Messiah who came for not only Jews, but Gentiles.

Now….through 21st century eyes, if you were, for example, Chinese and all this was news to you, first time anyone had ever told you this story, do you think you would embrace it? Or would you begin backing off and slowly say, “Riiiiiiight.”

I think the latter.

We’ve just heard this story for so long and for most of us it’s connected with a childhood who also for most of us is connected with warm fuzzy feelings of Christmas. Throwing this whole story out would be like dissing your mother. Amazing how we accept this incredible, farfetched first chapter of this man’s life without a problem and then move right on and confidently say things like, “He was a good teacher; he was a great man (claims he never made); he was one way to God but there are many others.”

But if you look at all these facts or occurrences that are presented by the Bible as fact, I don’t know anyone else in all of history that this happened to, do you? Doesn’t it have the supernatural written all over it? Angels, more angels, people knowing information without being told…and it’s the same information, an ancient prophecy fulfilled because of a government census?

You have to begin with this story. You can’t begin with just the man, Jesus and his claims. You have to do something with his beginning.

Most of us want to be able to explain things we believe. It has to make sense. If I can explain it, understand it, I’ll embrace and accept it. Amazing how we don’t transfer that to matters of everyday living. I do not know how a machine that weighs tons, rises off the ground. Even if you explained it to me, I would not understand. I do not know how an aircraft carrier floats. But I would get on either one in a heartbeat and allow myself to be flown at 600 mph 30,000 feet off the ground or sit in a lounge chair on deck with miles and miles of water all around and under me and peacefully drink a Coke.

I talk about having a relationship with God Almighty. How in the world do you do that with a spiritual being? I went to a conference once after we returned from two years overseas to update my nursing license. It was such a big conference, I could get all the CEU’s I needed in one day if I just sat there and listened to very learned men and women talk about nosocomial infections.

These scientists, doctors, were brilliant. I understood words like bacteria or infection but that’s about it. They conversed in this subject in scientific terms and equations without notes like I talk about a cake recipe. What are the chances I could I establish a meaningful relationship with someone like that? What are the chances someone that brilliant would have anything at all to talk with me about or any interest in the mundane issues of my life? And I’m suggesting the eternal Creator of not only our universe but every other universe, wanted a relationship with me and sent His son to procure it? How big a stretch is that?

I think you first need to explain away the preface. It either happened the way it was told or it’s a great story but chances of it being reality are remote. Things like that just don’t happen.

If it did happen, the supernatural is at work and we cannot explain his actions because we are finite creatures. We live 80 years if we’re fortunate and die. We’re like a comet flashing across the sky and then we’re gone. We change our minds a million times in that 80 years trying to decide what is truth.

And Jesus has yet to utter a word. We haven’t even begun the book.