The prophet had said before that His name should be called Wonderful; and His very first wonder was to be born above nature. We do not wish to read into Isaiah’s strangely beautiful words meanings that are not there; but the believing heart that sees the Bible an organic spiritual unit will have no trouble finding here the truth long held sacred by all Christians, the truth of the virgin birth.
Had Israel been like a young woman at the peak of her reproductive powers, the rising of such a prodigy as Jesus from within her might have had some logic in it; but He was born of Israel when her powers had waned and her strength had withered. By no stretch of fancy could anyone who knew Israel in that day have visioned Jesus as her offspring. Israel was dry ground--politically, morally and spiritually effete. Only the few old saints who still remembered the story of Sarah and Isaac could yet hope. And perhaps even they laughed as Sarah had laughed, half in unbelief and half in expectation.
Whatever Christmas may be today, that first Christmas was the celebration of a miracle. A root had come up out of a dry ground.
On coming to the house, they [the Magi] saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. Matthew 2:11
Born of a relatively unknown young woman in a stable in a small village, a helpless baby enters the world. But He is the Son of God, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. The miracle of Christmas!
May I not be distracted by the gaily wrapped packages, the tinsel, the modern commercialization, Lord, and miss the utter miracle of Christmas. I, too, would worship You.