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More than any other holiday, Christmas is predictable: the food, the lights, the music, even the date. If we imagined an unpredictable Christmas, we’d assume everything went wrong. But an unpredictable Christmas is exactly what God wants us to have. The gifts he delivers are so great that, no matter what we’re anticipating, we can count on being surprised. This week we see how God’s plan for productivity is the exact opposite of what we would expect. The productivity God desires comes from less work, not more. It comes through repentance, not resolve. Though the plan seems unusual and perhaps even likely to work, Jesus’ birth provides the perfect proof that God works life through what appears most dead.