From the advantage of history, looking at it through resurrection in 1990, it is a little easier for us than for Mary to see God's wisdom in the timing of His birth. Christ came into a world at peace; and you didn't need a passport. There were no travel restrictions. There were no national barriers. Can you imagine a world like that? He came at a time when travel and communication were their most advanced for that time. Roads and mail and mobility. He came when there was a common language. Can you imagine all the people who have given their lives to translate the scripture into the language of people? Christ came when one language would get you everything.

He came at a time when there were Jewish people in almost every community. Those people became the theological foundation for the gospel. When the gospel was preached, those who responded to Christ became the early evangelists. He came when Greek culture and thought had permeated the world with education. The time was right for the birth of His son.

As we celebrate the time when Christ was born, it is a fact that in the purpose of God there is available for you life in all of its fullness. That is God's purpose for each one. God would like for each of us to know Him personally in love, acceptance, forgiveness and trust.

As we come to know Him, He would like us to grow up and mature as sons and daughters of God in a relationship of obedience in which we begin to act out, in this world and in our relationships with people, His love. He wants everyone of us to know Him and to grow up and be of service -- our gifts to be used in the kingdom. Whether or not this all comes about is tied to how we relate God's timing in our lives.

Paul's text suggests there is a dynamic here. God is able to use the events of history, all the circumstances of our lives to create new things. It means we must respond to God's timing in the midst of life. Sometimes, like Mary, we can't see God at work in what's happening to us this week. Occasionally we can see God's timing in the lives of others because we are outside their lives and have a more objective look. Often with the eyes of faith we can look over our shoulders and see God's timing in our past. You could sit down at lunch today and begin to talk to the people with you about how in retrospect God was at work in events in your life when you didn't even know it. You could talk about your experience of salvation, vocational decisions, all sorts of things.

Our son Troy, our middle child, was a very severe asthmatic. Barbara and I were with the children in New York City on sabbatical, 1965. Would you believe that the doctor, who Barbara made an appointment for Troy to be seen by during that period, was a pioneer in all the medical profession in the desensitizing for people who were terribly allergic? It is amazing that this frail little child having a hard time to breathe, at that time he needed most, would be living in an apartment in New York City belonging to Union Seminary, and would have as his doctor one of the great authorities in that field. Think about your life and the timing that very often is there.