For the longest time we have been obsessed with accuracy, the 'getting it right' sort of thing that has been the credo of our approach to the increasingly complex ways of living. We are so imbued with the need for the right answers or the right way that it is almost heresy to even question our obsession. That's not to say 'getting it right' isn't important. I don't want the space shuttle going up with a window sticker that estimates its miles per gallon. We don't like messiness in life.
Ambiguity spins our compass.
The problem is our world has always been messy and ambiguous. It is what makes mystery still possible in a time of exponential growth in knowledge. Christmas is a messy time for Christians. Christmas runs head on into our obsession with getting things right. Two bearers of the Good News and many hymns tell us the birth occurs in Bethlehem.