I've been listening lately to my favorite Christmas album ever. "Behold the Lamb of God" by Andrew Peterson and other artists. It's an amazing telling of the Christmas story from Creation to the birth of Christ. It includes the Israelites wandering in the wilderness and what Mary's night in the stable must have been like (probably not very silent).

The story itself moves me every time I hear it. Having been to Jerusalem and Bethlehem, the emotions I experience when I listen to the album are overwhelming, again and again. I've been "there." The place where Christ was born. The place where the shepherds saw the angel. The garden of Gethsemane. The Old City where the trial must have been held. The tomb. As they say in Jerusalem, "If it didn't happen exactly here, it was somewhere close." And that's true. Jerusalem and Bethlehem are only 5 miles apart. The wilderness (that Jesus spent 40 days in, right?) is just that. Wilderness. No trees, just grass, hills, and dirt.

God created. His creation sinned. He made a way to be made right with Himself in the Old Testament that foreshadowed the ultimate Way in the New Testament. The Israelites (His people) wandered and lived "without" Him, it seemed, for years. And then a baby came. Just like He said. One who would be the Savior of the world. God had planned this in eternity. And we as His creation are too short-sighted to see it. I am thankful today for the Holy Spirit who gives this insight. I do not know how; it is a mystery, as Paul says.