Jamin Bradley

Over the last month, I’ve often rolled my eyes as I’ve driven down business 127. There’s a strange pipe sticking out of the middle of the road. People are confusing gaps between the orange cones as intentional openings. Four lanes of traffic have turned into two. Some people spent an entire stoplight’s length trying to turn left instead of going down one more block to free the rest of us up. It’s enough to inspire some moderate to severe road rage. But every time the annoyance set in for me, I was saved by a glorious thought: Jamin. Remember that all of this inconvenience will soon give birth to a Chick-fil-A in Jackson.

“Worth it,” I’d nod as I wondered how many people around me were having the same revelation.

The Christmas story is one of inconvenience. From becoming a social outcast, to not knowing how to process your miracle with your fiancé, to giving birth in a barn, to laying a baby in a feeding trough full of bacteria, to becoming a political refugee—there are all kinds of situations that congest traffic at the scene of the nativity. But amid the frustration and pain, there’s also the miraculous. From a virgin birth, to the stars breaking their own rules, to a myriad of angels appearing, to prophetic words being given, to supernatural dreams—the journey is quite astounding. And once we see the whole story of Jesus unfold and realize how far God is willing to go to love and save us, we are able to look back at the pain of Christmas and say, “Worth it.”

So whether it be a baby in a manger or Christianized chicken (to some, they appear to be one and the same), may we recognize that God has a way of birthing something beautiful out of our pain. May he give us a glimpse of what he is up to in the middle of the congestion.