Sunday, December 20, 2015

Not Unplanned At All

There's this meme that's been going around Facebook for a while now.  I'm not going to post it here, because I don't agree with it.  So, what is it?, you may ask.  Well, I'll tell you.  It's a photo -- taken from the move The Nativity Story -- showing Mary and Joseph, with the newborn baby Jesus.  The caption reads, "One unplanned pregnancy saved us all." 

I understand the concept of the meme, and the idea that it's trying to portray:  that even an unplanned baby has value.  That even an unplanned baby has the right to life.  I get that. 

The problem I have with the meme is that it isn't true.  Jesus was not an unplanned baby.  God planned for his birth from the creation of the world.  More than 600 Old Testament prophecies point to his birth, life, death, and resurrection. You don't tell someone 600 times that you are coming, then say, "Um, oops" when you get there. 

And it wasn't like Mary and God were smooching in the back seat of a car and got a little carried away and created an oops.  No, the angel Gabriel explained to Mary ahead of time what God planned for her life, and obtained her permission before the Holy Spirit came upon her and the power of the Most High overshadowed her. 

It may seem like a small, nit picky thing to some of you, but to me, it's just another subtle way society is trying to deny the deity of the Christ. 

Oh, and while I'm at it, Mary and Joseph were not homeless, nor were they refugees.  They left their home in Nazareth and traveled to Bethlehem in order to register for the census decreed by Caesar Augustus. And to fulfill the prophecy: 

But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from old, from ancient times.  Micah 5: 2

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