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Reflection:

Virgin birth. 

Honestly . . . it feels a bit beyond my pay grade to write about it. 

I mean, I attended biology class and I am the father of three children, so I can explain the steps two humans take to make a baby. But how that happened between the finite and the Infinite, I don’t know.

Throughout our lives, we will encounter paradox - two seemingly contradictory truths existing in the same space and time. And at the heart of the Christ story is a paradox: Jesus -  fully God and fully human - where the finite and Infinite wove together salvation in the belly of a young woman.

This part of the Christmas tradition will remain a mystery and may never be fully explained. And that’s okay . . . because the function of a paradox is not to solve the opposing truths, but to be transformed by living in the middle mystery of them. So here’s the mystery for us today: 

Transformation is a Virgin Birth

A paradox. You have a choice in transformation, and yet there are other parts of your transformation that you’re not in charge of. It’s less about your mustering up the strength to accomplish something and more about your being open to the transformation that God wants to do in you. The Divine inception begins quietly and deeply within you. 

Surely you have experienced this unanticipated change. Like a nagging knowing that it’s time to move on from your comfortable situation. Or a deep desire to try that thing that scares you the most. Or that unexpected longing for prayer. Or the revelatory conclusion that the best way forward is to be kinder to your weaknesses. Or a persistent invitation to forgive someone you feel hurt by. 

This is the place where the Divine begins new life. And newness of life is what we all desire.

“For nothing will be impossible with God” was the answer Mary received from the messenger and I believe we get the same answer for our own situations. Most of us will not have an angel announce those words to us. But I do think all of us can whisper the statement that catalyzes deep transformation and restoration: 

“Let it be to me according to your word.” 

May all your impossibilities be the very starting point for divine possibility.

…

* this meditation is an excerpt from the book Honest Advent.