Our ways are definitely not God's ways. God works from a different set of rules and assumptions. Humans choose what is flashy, beautiful, useful, talented, smart, and smooth. God deals from the bottom of the deck. Throughout the Scriptures, God chooses the youngest, the least, and the poorest. Micah proclaims God's prophecy that it will be out of Bethlehem, from the least and most insignificant of the clans, that the ruler of Israel will come. Christians naturally attributed this prophecy to Jesus. Once again God fooled us!

The genealogy of Jesus contains similar surprises. There are three women listed - Ruth from the hated Moabites, Rahab the Harlot, and Tamar, who bore a son by her father-in-law. And yet they were ancestors of David and Jesus. They responded to the Lord's call and played important roles in Israel's history of salvation, even though they were out-of-place in the ancestry of Jesus. Once again, God does not judge by outward appearances. Finally, Jesus is born to a poor peasant girl in a backwater province of the Roman Empire in circumstances that would cause her misunderstanding and suspicion. God has His own plan, and it seldom coincides with ours.