Christmas might be over; but if the Christmas story were occurring today, the wise men would be leaving their country to make the long journey to see King Jesus. They traveled for months and maybe a year or so.

Since the Christmas story includes them, I feel justified in writing about Christmas, even weeks later. Don’t worry. I won’t do that to you, but the story has more to say to us.

The story about Jesus is a story about God. It was God who caused Mary to become pregnant. No man touched her; the baby was from the Holy Spirit. Then God sent one of his angels to Mary’s man to tell him that Mary did nothing wrong. Joseph was to told to marry her as planned.

God showed his power by making a star appear in the night sky in a faraway country when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. That star moved slowly inviting the wise men to follow it until it rested above the house where Jesus was staying (Matthew 2:9-11). God is amazing.

Consider the supernatural dreams in which angels came to deliver important messages to Joseph and the wise men. There were five dreams mentioned by Matthew in his Christmas story. Joseph received four dreams, and the wise men were sent one. In this way, God protected the reputation of Mary and kept King Herod from killing Jesus as a child since God planned for Pilate to kill him three decades later. “Our God is an awesome God.”

There is one more God-thing in Matthew’s story — five old predictions came true. Long ago prophets told what would happen concerning Jesus. He would come by virgin conception (Matthew 1:23), be born in Bethlehem (2:6), he would be called out of Egypt (2:15), mothers would cry because their boy babies were being killed (2:16-18), and Jesus would be called a Nazarene (2:23). All of these things happened according to God’s plan just as the prophets predicted. God is marvelous.

The virgin birth, the star, the wise men, the dreams, the angels, the predictions coming true — all of these things, when thought about and believed, should cause us to reverence and respect our God — the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Rev. David Parry, pastor at First Church of God in Seymour, 625 E. Fourth St., writes a column for The Tribune.