A good friend of mine taught me this line, and I use it probably far too often. Now don’t get all bent out of shape with the idea of God laughing at our plans. I’m sure he’s not sinisterly laughing at our miserable and often pathetic strategies for accomplishing greatness. Although he really should but that’s not the point. 

There’s a passage from Isaiah 55 that says for my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are my ways your ways, declares the LORD. You don’t say? I never realized that my greatest attempts at thinking like God generally leave me missing something pretty significant. If you didn’t catch the sarcasm there, here’s your sign – I was joking. 

The story of Christmas was a pretty unexpected plan for those first century Jewish followers of God. They were ready and waiting for the greatest king to ever walk on the earth. They wanted this new king to bring them power and stability. They wanted a king who would wipe out the enemy and set up a perfect kingdom where they were always on top. It seemed they wanted someone more like the incredible hulk than the son of a carpenter. 

Could you imagine what that must have been like? Expecting a massively powerful king to come and save you and all of your family and friends only to find out he was a handyman from a no name town? Add to it this would be king was going to die as an accused criminal. How in the world is this the king we are looking for? 

Satan didn’t need to work hard to pull some This is not the king you’re looking for Jedi mind games on them. Who would have thought to do things in this way? An unassuming son of a carpenter would be the one – who would have come up with that? 

Working the unexpected is what God does. And that’s what Christmas is all about. God’s unexpected plan to save the world.