In our lives, ’tis a gift to be humble, but not a gift that many of us have.

There are many people who have gone before us, both in our biological and spiritual families, who have quietly and obscurely served God, loved others, and increased the amount of good in the world.

Whatever else the virgin birth may be, it doesn’t represent the domestication of the divine.

What, though, if we constructed a boundary between our time and God’s, and made time stop?

To submit to the baptism of John is to admit that we don’t always get it right, in a myriad of ways.

We are afraid: afraid that our questioning will lead to spiritual cataclysm, that once the camel’s skeptical nose gets under the tent flap, the whole shabby edifice of our faith will collapse.