God comes where he is least expected. Not to a great city like Rome or Athens. Not to Jerusalem or even the temple, but to a provincial backwater town in occupied Palestine.
God comes where he is least expected. God disrupts the planned lives of a young Jewish couple about to embark on married life together with a son they had not expected or asked for.
God comes where he is least expected. Not as disembodied spirit, or at the head of a might army of angels, but as a helpless baby lying in a feeding trough. God comes into the vulnerability of human existence.
God comes where he is least expected. Not as a saviour who defeats the Romans at the head of a rebellion, as some had expected. God comes to suffer and die at human hands.
God comes where he is least expected. God comes to you and me, even in our brokenness. God is with us when we get it right, and when we make mistakes; in our joy and our sorrow. God comes to disrupt our plans and rescue us from those things which we allow to dominate our lives.
We don’t need to find ways to reach up to the heavens, because God has journeyed down to be with us. May you experience this good news of great joy for all people in fresh, unexpected ways this Christmas and on your journey with God in 2020.