We were crammed into the small two-bedroom row house in the middle of inner city Denver, nine of us huddled around a card table filled with dirty dishes. After dropping off a box of Christmas gifts we took some time to sit down with a mom and her four sons. Eric was excited to have visitors he knew and was talking as fast as he could. "Did you like that picture I gave you A.B.? You tell everyone here what it was about!"

For the life of me I could not remember, so I stalled. "It was a really nice picture."

"Tell him what it was of!"

"Jesus?" I guessed.

Eric shook his head, "No! The picture of that little guy who was born in a barn. You told us that story once and I drew a picture of it."

I then remembered his drawing. Rectangle bodies with circle heads, all done with pencil. A simple tribute to Advent.

"Remember?" he pleaded.

"Yeah…it was Jesus."

Now that pictures hangs on my wall. I look at it everyday because after years of Sunday school and Bible college the incarnation got a little complicated for me. All my learning left me analyzing prophecy fulfilled, considering how religious systems were challenged, questioning the true meaning of the original language, cultural relevance and the conflict that the supernatural deals to our reason…but Eric just sees a baby born in a barn. Intellect can starve our hope and drain childlike wonder. While I grow spiritually skinny on reason and philosophy, Eric feeds his faith on the miraculous.

He's heard the whole Advent story, as I tell it at least a half dozen times as we march on into December but if asked to repeat it back, his version would be condensed to "God sent His son to be a kid on earth. He was born in a barn! With cows!" Eric has not yet realized it was the Savior of the world. He has yet to learn of the miraculous virgin birth announced by angels appearing in the night sky. He isn't aware that Jesus was a long awaited redeemer, a sought after hope or even that this mysterious baby was visited by northern kings and hunted down by a nearer king.

Born in a barn -- for Eric the Gospel starts here. Pure unadulterated wonder. He thinks God is awesome…not because He created the universe with the sound of his mighty voice or because He led a people though seas, deserts and hostile lands. Nope. Eric thinks God is the greatest because He decided to make his entrance in a feeding trough. That, in the words of my friend Eric, is "cool".

I know that this amazement is the opening act of faith. Be assured belief born in wonder is truly a gift.