On my desk sits an advent calendar and every
morning I excitedly get to add a new character, to create a nativity scene that should hopefully look like this…
As nativity scenes go, it is very cute and oh so familiar. We know exactly what to expect; the
shepherds, wise men, star, angels and a baby lying in a manager. But I sometimes wonder if the Christmas story
is so familiar it has lost all its meaning.
Matthew 1v22-23 contains
one of the most remarkable truths of Christmas, one I know I so often neglect
to remember. It says, “All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had
said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give
birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.””
They shall call him Immanuel, which means God with us. Stop and think about that for a minute. What a remarkable thing Matthew is saying
here! This baby would be no ordinary
baby, he was in fact God. It is
important we are clear what that means. This is not God pouring a little bit of
himself into a baby. No, we know God
exists as three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and each person is fully
God. This verse speaks of the the second part of
the trinity, the Son, coming to earth in human form. Colossians 1 describes the Son
like this, “He is the image of the invisible God, the
firstborn over all creation. For by
him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and
invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things
were created by him and for him. He is
before all things, and in him all things hold together.”
The second person of the Godhead became a baby and dwelt among us.
Even if you have heard that many times, I
hope your brain is starting to hurt just a little, as you begin to comprehend
the enormity of that statement. The
creator of all that we see. The one who
called into being a universe which contains over 350 billion galaxies, a planet
that contains over 1 million different species of insect and a human body
containing a set of lungs which have over 300, 000 million tiny blood vessels
in them, took on the form of a baby. The all-powerful
become utterly dependent. Those of us with
small babies know only too well how dependent they are. They need everything done for them and constant
care and attention. When you next look at a baby try and imagine the one who created all becoming like them. Philippians 2 puts it like this, “Who,
being in very nature God,did not consider equality with God something
to be grasped,but made himself nothing,taking the very nature of a
servant,being made in human likeness.”
It seems unbelievable, doesn’t it?! But I think it should cause us to sit
up and really take notice of the Christmas story. Something incredible is going on here. In the midst of the busyness this Christmas
time why don’t you take some time to stop and reflect on the significance of
the phrase “God with us” and ask yourself why did God have to come and dwell
among us?
The Incarnation
