Celestial Obsession

Some scholars believe the Gospels are written backwards, making the birth narratives the most mature articulation of the Good News (which is the life and work of the one called the Messiah).

Here’s why I like this theory: There is a cast of creative characters, delinquents, outcasts, and foreigners at the beginning of the Gospels that were intentionally kept in the story to tell us something. The few that come to mind right away are the enigmatic characters from the East. Who are the Magi? And why exactly are they obsessing about a star in the sky?

The birth stories are bursting with surprises. To ignore them is to ignore the radical, cosmically influential, and transformational nature of the Good News.

And that’s why I wrote Starstruck: And Other Birth Stories that Changed Everything I Believed about the Good News. This book is very much in line with what one of my friends said: “If it’s not Good News for everyone everywhere, then it’s not Good News for anyone anywhere."