It is within the bonds of marriage that I, for one, found a greater freedom to be and to become and to share myself than I can imagine ever having fo… - Frederick Buechner

The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn't have been complete without you.

The passage from Genesis points to a mystery greater still. It says that we came from farther away than space and longer ago than time. It says that evolution and genetics and environment explain a lot about us but they don’t explain all about us or even the most important thing about us. It says that though we live in the world, we can never really be at home in the world. It says in short not only that we were created by God but also that we were created in God’s image and likeness. We have something of God within us the way we have something of the stars.

For outlandish creatures like us, on our way to a heart, a brain, and courage, Bethlehem is not the end of our journey but only the beginning - not home but the place through which we must pass if ever we are to reach home at last.