He's Wonderful.

I like to think that I'm wonderful. Not outright, of course, because that would not be wonderful, but I give myself quite a few pats on the back now and then. The center of my own world, the main character in my own feature-length film...

However, I am not wonderful, and the Christmas story shows me every year that God is.

The first words to describe wonderful on dear old dictionary.com are "excellent; great; marvelous; of a sort that causes or arouses wonder; amazing; astonishing." Clearly, I am none of those.

When I think I'm great and wonderful, it's because I'm being great and wonderful all on my own; it's a charming characteristic. But when I read about the things and specifically the people in the Christmas story, I stop thinking about myself and am just amazed at how wonderful the Lord is.

Zacharias didn't believe the angel - he was troubled and afraid at the visit by Gabriel and thought he and his wife Elizabeth were too old to be parents. Yet, Zacharias was the father of John, the forerunner for Jesus Christ. Mary was a virgin. She was engaged but not married, and told that she would become pregnant by the Holy Spirit. To me, that's a stranger thing than an old couple having a baby. She demonstrated complete trust in the Lord and praised God. Joseph didn't really understand it at all either and almost divorced Mary but after a visit from the angel, he changed his mind. Joseph was not the father of Jesus but he was the man on earth who raised Him - now that's a privilege! Then there's the shepherds who were... shepherds. In a field, at night, with sheep. And a host of angels told them about a baby born in a manger and it says that they went straight to Bethlehem. They believed also.

Simeon had waited his entire life to see the Messiah. Finally he did, and his satisfaction in that was evident. Anna also was devout toward the Lord all her life. She praised God when Jesus the baby was brought into the temple. The Magi followed a star for a couple of years, leading them to a toddler aged Messiah. They not only followed the Lord's leading there but when they were told not to return to Herod, they listened to God's leading and obeyed.

All of these characters and the things that happened to make this story so multifaceted make me think "God is wonderful". He wrote this story. He orchestrated the incarnation. Throughout this story it's "God did this" and "God did that". And then we have to go back to prophecies and forward to the death and resurrection of Christ. God did that too.

He is wonderful!

Merry Christmas!