But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and be called the Son of the Most High. … “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin.” Luke 1:30-32, 34

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“Salvation to all that will is nigh;
That All, which always is all everywhere,
Which cannot sin, and yet all sins must bear,
Which cannot die, yet cannot choose but die,
Lo, faithful virgin, yields Himself to lie
In prison, in thy womb; and though He there
Can take no sin, nor thou give, yet He will wear,
Taken from thence, flesh, which death's force may try.
Ere by the spheres time was created, thou
Wast in His mind, who is thy Son and Brother;
Whom thou conceivst, conceived; yea thou art now
Thy Maker's maker, and thy Father's mother;
Thou hast light in dark, and shutst in little room,
Immensity cloistered in thy dear womb.”
John Donne, “Annunciation”

I was raised in a household that wasn’t religious. In fact, my mother taught me many of the arguments AGAINST Christianity by the time I was in high school. But she still loved to celebrate Christmas with gusto. We listened to the Messiah, elaborately and painstakingly decorated a tree, hung stockings, had lots of presents, ate very well, and displayed a beautiful little manger scene. Mom didn’t appreciate the story, but she clearly appreciated the art.
   As a young boy, I loved it too, especially the Messiah and the manger scene. The story of baby Jesus inspired such beauty! But I struggled to understand this crazy story.  Why would God appear in a small remote country? Why would he show up at night in a stable witnessed by a ragtag group of shepherds? And most of all, how could the God of all creation take on flesh, or possibly fit inside a young girl? Crazy notions!
   I was taught to be rational, and logical—to understand things.  Yet, here was a Mystery that I could barely conceive, let alone understand. It is wild, unpredictable, and unknowable, and yet, there the Mystery sits His mother’s Maker, the ONE before time, conceived in mortal flesh, sinless, but destined to take on all sin. How could this be?
   So as an adult, I was relieved to come across John Donne’s poem, which wrestled with the same questions centuries before me.  He expressed so much in so few words.  How could she be the mother of the Eternal One?  How could she conceive her Conceiver, make her Maker?  Forget the virgin part—how could it happen at all? How could the “immensity” of God be contained in a womb? It is a mystery—a wondrous and unexplainable puzzle.  
   We at New Creation are a community marked by a “Questioning Faith.” But the fact is, God is beyond our rationality, our expectations and even beyond our imagination. God is not limited by our meager human understanding. An easily understandable god would clearly be human-made. But God is not only all-knowing, the source of eternal love, our source of grace, and the Creator of the universe—God is also a little wild and crazy (I mean, the platypus and nebulae, right?). The Jesus of the manger is so radical that even the religious experts of the day didn’t expect it. God is greater than our imagination and understanding. This Mystery (and others) keeps me seeking God.  
   The busyness of the holidays can distract us with all the things to get done. We risk getting locked into what is doable, rational, and right before our eyes.  But Christmas is a time of Immeasurable Wonder, Lavish Beauty, Unconditional Love, and Unexplainable Mystery.  And it comes all wrapped up in an impossible-but-actual little baby, born helpless, yet who created, orders and maintains the universe.  He is the ONE.