I used to watch Hallmark Christmas movies, but it has been a long time. Now it's not even clever to parody them. They used to have some virtue; now they are the same plot with different clothes and actors.
Long before I stopped watching them, however, I had become sick to death of the phrase "the miracle of Christmas." It had no spiritual or theological meaning and usually referred to some magical and illogical answer to the protagonist's problem, a deus ex machina we could see coming in the first five minutes.
There is a miracle of Christmas; there are actually many of them. In fact, one can't celebrate Christmas if they are allergic to miracles, real ones. Actual miracles are God reshaping the natural order of creation temporarily to His purpose.
One young girl became pregnant without sex; no one else has. It happened one time.
Yes, it is hard to believe. But it is central to the Nativity, and Matthew and Luke do not act like it's anything but a hard-to-believe intervention of God in the natural order. In Luke, Mary doesn't believe it at first; in Matthew, Joseph doesn't. Note that their first reaction was not, "Isn't this great! A virgin birth! The town will be so happy and accepting." Reading between the lines, we see that later in his life the town was not happy and accepting; rumors about Mary still existed thirty years later. Mary pondered the miracle in her heart, as well she should. Joseph needed a dream and to leave the country for three years.
A miracle does not make life easy. We think they solve all our problems, but . . . not necessarily.
The star didn't make the Magi's life easier. That God arranged the Roman empire's circumstances so that Bethlehem would be Jesus' birthplace didn't make it easy on Mary and Joseph and thousands of other travelers. The nativity certainly did not ease the life of Herod's victims and their families.
No, miracles are not about ease and comfort. But like immigrants (to quote Hamilton), "they get the job (of redemption) done."
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