Every year, as Christmas approaches, something familiar happens. Lights appear on houses and buildings. Music fills the air. People talk about peace, hope, and goodwill. But beneath all of it sits a question that quietly divides the room. Do we actually believe the story we are celebrating?
Because at the center of Christmas is not a decoration, a song, or a tradition. At the center of Christmas is a claim. A claim so bold that people have mocked it for centuries. A claim so supernatural that even those who say they believe in God sometimes reject it. The claim is this. A virgin conceived and gave birth to the Son of God.
I have heard the laughter. I have heard the insults. I have heard people say that anyone who believes in a virgin birth is naive, uneducated, or foolish. Others say it is impossible. Some try to soften it by calling it symbolic. Even some religious people accept God in theory but draw a line when His power challenges their comfort. They say they believe in God, but not like that.
But the virgin birth is not a side note in the Christian faith. It is not a poetic idea. It is not a theological extra. It is a foundation stone. Remove it, and the entire structure begins to crack. To understand why, we have to do what Scripture always does when truth is questioned. We have to go back to the beginning.
The Bible opens with authority and clarity. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Before there was matter, movement, or meaning, there was God. Darkness covered everything until God spoke. Let there be light. And light obeyed. From that moment forward, creation responded to the voice of God. He did not shape the world with effort or struggle. He spoke, and reality aligned.
Everything that exists came into being by the Word of God. The sky, the seas, the land, the stars, the animals, all of it formed at His command. Then God did something personal. He formed man from the dust and breathed life into him. Man was not an accident. He was intentional. He was made in the image and likeness of God. He carried God’s nature and was created whole.
God then declared that it was not good for man to be alone. He formed a woman from man’s side, establishing unity, purpose, and relationship. Again, this was accomplished by the Word of God. Nothing was random. Nothing was beyond His control.
Then came the fall. Temptation entered through the serpent. Adam and Eve disobeyed. Sin fractured creation and introduced death, shame, and separation. But God did not remain silent. He spoke again. He declared that there would be enmity between the serpent and the woman, and between the serpent’s seed and the seed of the woman. The serpent would bruise the heel of the woman’s seed, but the woman’s seed would crush the serpent’s head.
That statement should stop us. The seed belongs to the man, yet God deliberately said the seed of the woman. From the very beginning, God was announcing that redemption would come in a way humanity could not engineer. The solution to sin would not come through human strength or normal reproduction. It would come through divine intervention.
Time moved forward. Sin multiplied. Humanity drifted. Then God called Abraham and made a covenant with him. God promised that through Abraham’s seed all nations would be blessed. Abraham believed God, even when the promise seemed impossible. His wife Sarah was barren. Years passed. Hope faded. Still, God remained faithful.
When Sarah was ninety years old, God did the impossible. He opened her womb, and Isaac was born. The child of promise arrived not through human ability but through divine power. God was showing the pattern. When God brings life, it is never limited by circumstance.
God told Abraham that His promise would continue through Isaac. Yet God later tested Abraham by asking him to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. Abraham obeyed, trusting that God would even raise the dead. Isaac was bound hand and foot, the knife was raised, and Abraham’s heart was fully set on obeying God. However, suddenly, God intervened and provided a ram to take Isaac’s place.
That moment revealed the heart of the gospel. God would not require Abraham to give his beloved son, but one day God would give His own. The promise continued through generations. Prophets spoke. Promises accumulated. Hope grew.
Then Isaiah declared something unmistakable. The Lord Himself would give a sign. A virgin would conceive and bear a son, and His name would be Immanuel, God with us. This was not symbolism. This was a sign. God was saying that when this happens, you will know I have arrived.
Centuries passed. Silence filled the space between prophecy and fulfillment. Then God spoke again. An angel appeared to a young virgin named Mary. She was not powerful or influential. She was ordinary. The angel told her she would conceive by the power of God and give birth to the Son of God.
Mary did not argue. She did not negotiate. She did not demand proof. She asked how, and then she surrendered. Be it unto me according to Your word. In that moment, faith met obedience. The Word that created the universe entered human flesh.
This is where the Gospel of John pulls everything together. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through Him. Then John declares the impossible. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
Jesus is not just a messenger of God. He is the Word of God. He is the same Word that said, Let there be light. He is the same Word that formed man from dust. He is the Word through whom the world was framed. When Jesus was conceived in Mary’s womb, God was not stretching His power. He was expressing His nature.
So when people say they believe in God but reject the virgin birth, the problem is not evidence. The problem is belief. A God small enough to be understood completely is not the God of Scripture. If God can speak galaxies into existence, He can speak life into a womb. If God can design reproduction, He can operate outside of it. If God can predict history and fulfill hundreds of prophecies through one life, He can do what He said He would do.
Christmas forces a decision. Either God is who He says He is, or He is not. Either His Word is true, or it is not. On December 25th, we are not celebrating a myth. We are celebrating the moment eternity stepped into time. The moment the Word became flesh.
Christmas reminds us that God keeps His promises. That He is faithful. And that what He speaks, He brings to pass.
G. Edward Wyche