One of my favorite things about the birth of Christ is that just about nothing is how you or I would have orchestrated it. We wouldn’t have picked a cave for the labor and delivery, a bunch of cows as the observers, or a cold hard stone to lay the newborn in. We wouldn’t have picked stinky shepherds, and we wouldn’t have picked the small village of Bethlehem. But that’s just how the Father did it. He did it in part to teach us that the wisdom of the world is foolishness next to the wisdom of God. His is not the way of power and position, but humility and service. Built into the advent story and season is thinking of others first and your own comforts last … are you there yet?  Are you living this season in Bethlehem?