Last month we celebrated Christmas.  And we read that about 700 years before Jesus was born, Isaiah said, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel,” meaning God with us.  But this idea that the world would have a physical visit from the Creator of the universe is considered foolishness by many today.

I heard it said once that third world cultures are more inclined to believe in the supernatural than western cultures.  Developed nations don’t need to rely on the “crutch” of some spiritual belief.  This was not so at one time.

Acts 14 tells of Paul’s first visit to Lystra.  Lystra had been under Persian control, then Greek, and was under Roman control by the time Paul got there.  These were hardly undeveloped nations full of uneducated people.  But when God used Paul to heal a man lame since birth, the people said, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” “God with us.”

They may have been looking to the wrong god.  But they had the concept right.  Oh, that more would be so foolish in the present age of “enlightenment.”