Consider a teen-age girl in your neighborhood. She is very involved in her church, she volunteers for charity events, she does well in school, has many good friends, she does not get in any trouble, and she is always there to babysit your kids whenever you want and refuses to except payment for it. You find out through her parents that she is now engaged to a wonderful boy that has a “resume” that exceeds the girls, if that is possible. They are planning a beautiful wedding after a long abstinent engagement. After a few months of engagement, several months before the wedding, she is walking down the street and you say to your neighbor as you talk over the fence, “does she look pregnant to you?” Rumors begin to spread. Then you find out that the boy was going to breakoff the engagement. You think, “what a low-life”, until you find out, the baby is not his – your disgust for the boy turns to sympathy. After a couple weeks you notice the boy is walking down the street holding hands with his pregnant finance. Confusion sets in and you wonder, “is he still going to marry her!?” You see your neighbor out raking his leaves, so you walk over to the fence and motion him over. You ask, “is he still going to marry her after she got pregnant with someone else!?” The neighbor responds, “Oh yes. Didn’t you hear? She is sill a virgin, the baby conceived in her is of God, she is pregnant by the Holy Spirit.” Let’s be honest, how would we respond to this? Considering this hypothetical scenario can help us also consider more deeply the miraculous event of Jesus’ birth. What is so miraculous about the events surrounding the birth of Jesus? 1)	A man found out his fiancée was pregnant, and the baby was not his, yet he still married her (this would NOT happen in that culture) 2)	A teenage virgin became pregnant, but was still a virgin after the baby was born 3)	A VERY old, barren woman and her VERY old husband became pregnant with their first child (who became John the Baptist, the one who would announce the Son of God) 4)	A star guided shepherds to the birthplace of the baby Jesus, they went to see, and they worshipped Him 5)	A ruthless, wicked ruler killed all male babies in the region to destroy the baby Jesus, but was not able to kill Jesus 6)	The virgin birth was foretold over 750 years before it happened 7)	An angel of the Lord delivered the messages to Joseph, Mary, Zechariah, and the shepherds Any ONE of these things happening have incredibly high odds. For all 7 of them to happen would be impossible – imagine the odds of all the other events of the life of Jesus happening on top of these. Read Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1
