[image error]Luke 1:26-38

I remember sitting in my history of western civilization class at the university and feeling angry. The professor, a woman with glasses and long dark hair mixed with gray, had just said, “this was around the time Jesus is said to have been born. Of a virgin.” She smiled. “Although I don’t know how a virgin got pregnant back in those days.”

Hey, I get it. It’s a miracle. It’s not suppose to be an everyday occurence.

But why did she have to editorialize in the middle of her lecture? If she chooses not to believe it, she is just exercising the free will God has given her. However, her attitude made me angry: her tone of voice, her snide smile, her mocking words. She mocked my faith.

This happened before the era of “political correctness” flooded our society. Of course, if I said something snide about another religion, I would be in the wrong. But apparently back then and up through today, it’s okay to dismiss Christianity as myth.

But even as Christians, don’t we sometimes have trouble believing Mary conceived through the Holy Spirit? How is that possible? Was my history professor right to mock such a ridiculous story?

Here’s another question: do you believe there is a God who created the universe?

Most Christians would say ‘yes.’ Those who say ‘no’ to such a foundation of Christian belief may need to evaluate their Christianity. So if  a believer says, “Yes, I believe God created the universe,” then believing God could send the power of the Holy Spirit to make Mary conceive is much easier, right?

Eric Metaxas, in his book Miracles, says it this way:

“If God could insert the entire universe from ‘outside’ the system, why couldn’t he insert a sperm cell into the otherwise ‘closed’ system?”

Today I think: what a cliché–a university professor who is an atheist. She probably chose not to believe there is a God who created the universe. So her disbelief in a virgin birth is understandable. But for those of us who do believe God created the universe–and to us humans, the universe is a big place–then our belief in a Savior born of a virgin is much easier.

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