Christmas story reveals extraordinary often comes from the ordinary

The real joy and beauty of Advent and Christmas never will be found in swarming shoppers, fighting to be first in line for a purchase, playing parking-lot bumper cars or giving gifts to those we know will reciprocate. Only when we look away from the cultural mayhem associated with the holiday will we rediscover God's gift of the Son.

God has given us this gift to redeem and free us. During these few weeks, we again must decide to open or reject that gift.

Every December, I point toward the true message of the Advent and Christmas seasons. I do that because I know how easily we get caught up in other, gaudy themes contending for our attention.

For thousands of years, the hopes and expectations had grown about the Messiah's coming. But with each passing century, so did questions of God's faithfulness. Then, in God's appointed year, at a specified place and involving a host of unlikely characters, God acted.

We do not know why God chose to send Jesus during the reign of Augustus Caesar. Was it accidental, coincidental or providential that the most ingenious of the Caesars sat on the Roman throne and ordered a worldwide census that required the Son of God to be born in Bethlehem of Judea?