I am really good at imagining a lot of “what if” style scenarios. I must have an overactive imagination, I’m not sure. I can come up with a variety of scenarios that spark my thinking. What would it have been like if it had happened this way? Christmas is a prime example of this.

This displays itself mostly in those moments after a verbal exchange with someone. I can be thinking about it later and that’s when the perfect rejoinder appears in my mind. Mostly, it’s far too late to do anything about it, but my mind works along those channels sometimes.

I do this with biblical stuff too. I ask questions like, “Why did God do it that way? What if he had done it like this instead?” And most of the time, in situations like these, I end up at the somewhat unsatisfying conclusion of, “Well, that was just God’s timing.” Or, “That was God’s design.”

I don’t like that conclusion. It seems to be a cop out. But there are many times when that seems to be the only answer I’m going to get.

Take the birth of Christ, for example. Why did God choose to send his Son as a baby at the specific time that he did? I can think of several eras that I might have chosen instead. And so my mind wanders of into the land of “what if…” What if Christmas was different?

What if the promised descendant of David had come to earth in David’s own era? Maybe not in his lifetime, but certainly within the next generation or two? Israel experienced a level of peace and prosperity during the reign of David’s son, Solomon, like no other period in their history. Wouldn’t it have made sense to send a promised descendant at a time like that? When it was fresh on their minds from hearing the promises made to King David?

Or what about a more recent example? Why couldn’t God have chosen a period of time like the Middle Ages to send the promised Messiah? The world was reeling from the impact of a disastrous plague, the Crusades had an effect on world cultures that is still evident, even today. Wouldn’t that be a time when the arrival of God’s own Son could have made a tremendous impact on the world?

But neither of those – or the myriads of other scenarios I can imagine – were how or when God chose to enter into humanity. He chose a time that followed over four centuries of spiritual silence. He chose to enter into this world at a place that seemed to be the backwaters of civilization. Why did God choose to do Christmas in this way? How does that even make sense?

I don’t know if I can provide the satisfying answers that I want to find. What I do know is that this time, when God entered into the world as Jesus, as a baby born in a stable in Bethlehem, has had such an impact upon all the ages. So much so that history itself had been split into BC and AD at the time of his life… At this time of Christmas.

Why this time? Why this place? Why this manner?

I don’t know for sure. What I do know is this:

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. (Galatians 4:4-7, ESV)

The time that God chose to send his Son into this world was just the right time. And it fulfills more than one promise. It satisfies the promise made to David that his descendant would reign forever. And it satisfies the promise made to Abraham that all peoples of the earth would be blessed because of him. That, in fact, because of Christ, I can be adopted into God’s very own family!

It’s a series of promises made at the right time, and it accomplishes so much.

And so, even though I might imagine a lot of “what if” scenarios, in this case, I can be satisfied with the knowledge that Paul shares with us that God’s timing was the right timing.

That night, so long ago in that little town of Bethlehem, was the right night to save the world.

Question: Have you ever wondered about God’s timing for things in your life? How has his timing been proven to be the right timing for you? You can leave a comment by clicking here.