Small Comfort
While the Christmas story has through the ages delivered untold comfort, hope, and joy to the world, I have occasionally wondered why the men and women who first received the news weren’t completely bewildered as they learned the means by which salvation would come. Though questions did arise—Zechariah’s “How can I know?” and Mary’s “How can this be?” (Luke 1)—doesn’t it surprise us when the old priest, holding his newborn son, blesses God as if the promised salvation had already happened? When Mary, only three months pregnant, proclaims a seismic shift in the world’s order? When Simeon, ancient from waiting, is ready to rest in peace after bumping into the holy family, confident that he has held in his arms Israel’s Consolation and Glory and Light to gentiles? Given the beleaguered suffering of God’s bruised world, shouldn’t we be astonished by the force of faith evidenced before anything really happened? Wouldn’t we expect at least one person to say something like, “We’ve waited sinc
