Tonight is the first night that I will be leading the Permsup youth Bible study. The girls who have been coming asked that we study the birth of Jesus, as some of them have never read it. So for the past couple of days I have been reflecting on just how God decided to become man.

I realized that the beauty and even craziness of the story have lost their impact on me, over the years of hearing the verses read and not really pondering them. At first I wondered how to lead a study on Jesus’ birth and have it be very interesting. But God has been making the story new to me all over again, and it has been such a blessing preparing to share this with the girls.

First of all, God– the king of Heaven and earth, who deserves all glory, honor and praise; who holds the power of life and death in his hands; was given a feeding trough as his first bed. He was born in the middle of the night to a couple who could not only find no room in a local motel (was it full or were they unwelcomed?), but who also knew no one in their home town who would welcome them in for the night. So Mary gave lonely birth to the Savior of the world among animals.

Jesus was born in poverty, in the middle of nowhere, to parents not of royalty or power, nor of blonde hair and blue eyes. He came to the ordinary, the obscure, the humble. To ones the world would not commend or idealize, but who God alone lifts up. He came not as political leader or king, forsaking the appeal of human power, but came as a servant and friend to the poor.

And who did God send the hosts of heaven to, announcing this miracle of deity made flesh? Not to the religious of the day, those who memorized every Jewish law and spent their days in the temple. But to shepherds. To one of the lowest classes of society. Interestingly, to the men who cared for sheep offered as temple sacrifices. To these God introduced the Lamb of God, come to take away the sins of the world.

Obscurity in his birth, rejection in his death. What kind of Savior is this? One who is familiar with our sufferings, who has carried our infirmities especially those of the “least of these.” By his wounds the poor of Bangkok can be healed.

If Jesus were to be born in Bangkok, I’m convinced it would be in a slum. I hope that as the girls in the study consider the birth of Jesus tonight that they will receive in a new way the depth of Jesus love and care for them and their community.