The Christmas story and certainty

The certainty some people seem to have about what the Bible reaches has bothered me for a while. In the following blog comment I attempted to explain why – with references to Christmas since it is Christmas 🙂

(And I can write this way because I’m not an atheist – I’m only almost an atheist)

When I read some of these comments it sounds like God gave us the Bible so we could have certain answers to everything.

But I don’t think that’s possible unless

1. we are God;
   or
2. our God is not the God-beyond-figuring-out who does things that surprise everyone like being born as a human baby in a cave.

I believe God is still in the business of surprising and changing those of us who are open to being surprised and changed by him.

It’s scary not to be certain. But when the angels appeared to the shepherds they didn’t say “Do not fear – because behold, I will give you a book that will remove all uncertainty”. They said “Do not fear because you can trust me – because behold, the scary surprising things I am doing are good things that will bless the world.”

Don’t trust in certainty and answers and knowledge. Trust that God who holds all the answers – and only gives us some of them – is for us and not against us. Let him be God and let’s be humans who treat other humans as well as is humanly possible.

Merry Christmas 🙂