Tuesday, December 19, 2000
Tuesday, December 19, 2000
Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?"
There was an article in NEWSWEEK last year about this time about researchers at Michigan
State University who are trying to clone the perfect Christmas tree. Every once in a while these
researchers come across a Platonic ideal of Christmas-treeness: a Douglas fir or Scotch pine with
a straight trunk, thick needles that can hold ornaments, limbs slanted up at a perfect 45-degree
angle, an ideal conical shape and strength. They then take a snippet from a bud and start to clone
it through micropropagation. This involves putting the tissue in a growth medium in a lab dish,
waiting for the cells to divide and produce shoots, then transferring it to another medium
concocted to induce roots. This clone should grow into a copy of the perfect original. I
personally would be happy if they never succeeded.
We don't live in a perfect world, so there is a need for God's grace in Jesus Christ.
(Luke 1:34
NRSV)
"The angel appeared unto a virgin . . . named Mary." Scholars will battle forever over the question
of the virgin birth. That's all right. You do with it what you will. Still, in a day when mere humans
are cloning animals and giving birth to test-tube babies, the idea that God could cause a virgin to
have a child stretches the imagination not at all. The essential message still comes shining
through--Jesus was a man like no other. He was unique among all the people who have ever lived.
He was the Son of God!
God of grace, in my imperfection, thank you for your never ending grace in Jesus Christ. Amen.
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