The famous United Methodist Bishop of California named Gerald Kennedy once sent a pastoral letter to all the churches and pastors under his care. He told the story of seeing a very poorly dressed woman and her young daughter looking into one of the beautiful department store windows in the downtown area of a large city. In it was the manger scene, but here Mary was dressed as the Queen of Heaven with rich diamonds and other jewels in her dazzling crown. The little girl gazed for a while, and then turned to her mother and said, "She''s so beautiful! I bet she never had any troubles like we do, did she mother?"

The good Bishop shared this statement, "Let nobody in your church ever think that Jesus Christ was ever divorced from the world of trouble and pain." The Gospel truth is that he came…