There are many glorious things in the Christmas story. Many miracles and eye-popping angels and a quick escape to Egypt. But to only see the glory is to only see half the story.
Becoming Human: Amazing that anyone could do it! But to change from perfect spirit to a body filled with organisms and living nine months in fluid and having to go through birth and… being a teenager? No thank you.
Virgin Birth: An amazing miracle of God that a virgin can be pregnant by the Spirit, without any fleshly contact. However, that virgin then had to face the shame of dealing with neighbors and her fiancée wondering who the other man is.
Annunciation: An angel coming to announce the pregnancy is fantastic, but there is the simple human question of “how?” And this is insulting to the angel. Luckily, he just says that nothing is impossible for God.
Going to Elizabeth: Elizabeth and the pre-natal John the Baptist were rejoicing to hear about the virgin birth. But Mary recognizes her lowliness and poverty and desperation. But she recognizes that God is raising her to a different level—one of blessing.
Going to Bethlehem: Sure, having your baby born in the town of prophecy, the city of David is great, and fulfilling the prophecy is great. But it is not so great to be forced there by a Satanic, Roman power.
Shepherds and Angels: “Glory to God” and people worshipping is great. But shepherds? Shepherds are the lowest of the low, the rejected profession. Why did it have to be them?
Three Magi: It’s great to have aristocrats from afar to give you money, just like a king. But to have them accidently lead your great enemy to you—the local ruler— that’s not so good.
Escape to Egypt: Wonderful that God gave Joseph a dream to help him escape the persecution. But having other babies die for the sake of the one who escaped is awful.
Going to Nazareth: After all this adventure and excitement, finally it’s time to settle down in a small, hillbilly town, living a quiet, normal life. What was all this for, anyway?
Did you see the other half? For every glorious, wonderful, miraculous event, there is another aspect of shame and sadness and even terror.
The story of Jesus sometimes is seen as simply a story of glory—of miracles and successes and happiness. But the real story is God bringing glory out of a context of shame. The virgin birth is shameful. Mary had to face her family and friends and to be shamed by their stares, their whispers and outright lies about her. God did that through His miracle. God knew it would be done. And it was necessary.
To live in a world that sees God’s ways as something less than ideal means that to live for God is to live in shame. It means that people will look at a God-led lifestyle and say that you need to “get a life”. It means doing good and having people hate you for it. It means people doing wrong to you and you never doing wrong back to them.
Sometimes we can feel that our lives are lives of shame, of people hating us all the time, of them looking down on us. However, just because others look down on us doesn’t mean that God does. If we are doing our best to live for Him, and holding onto His word and helping others, not judging them—then we have nothing to be ashamed about. Our lives should not be about shame.
Instead of focusing on the shame in our lives, we should focus on God’s glory through us. We should see the miracles God is doing in our lives. We should recognize that if we are getting shame from others in living for God, then we are just like Mary. Just like Joseph. Just like Jesus.
And that’s nothing to be ashamed about.
