"God With Us..."

My brain is wanting to write about something that has been roaming around in my thinking for years — a lot of years.

It has to do with an incredible story, so common, that we don’t even realize the impact it was suppose to make.

Imagine for a moment, — maybe many moments,— that on Christmas night, thousands of years ago, God was creating an entirely new “In the beginning.”

Oh, the earth was the same dirt, there were the all the same creatures, animals, insects, birds, human beings, mountains, rivers, seas and deserts.  

However what was new, in the midst of all the old, was the very same original plan God once called “very good.”    All wrapped up in the tiny skin of the baby Jesus.

And the Angels announced the plan:

‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: ¹¹to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹²This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’ ¹³And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, 

¹⁴ ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven,

   and on earth peace….(Luke 2)

“Great Joy” and “Peace,”  that was the “good new for all people.”

An extraordinary — exceptionally astounding —    announcement.

But, in all of the fuss and excitement, something crucial was inadvertently missed, or misunderstood.

It was one tiny sentence in the greatest news ever to come to the human mind.

  and they shall name him Emmanuel’,

which means, ‘God is with us.’ (Matt. 1)

God within that tiny baby’s body.

    God incarnate.

God having a bodily form in that baby born in a smelly manger.

Our Christian faith is based on the truth that Jesus was God incarnate.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being ⁴in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.(John 1)

God’s creative word, that spoke into being all that is, in Jesus.

God came to speak again what his dream was in the very beginning of time.

So, as we listen again to the Christmas Story, on Christmas Eve this year, think anew about that precious little baby wrapped in swaddling cloth lying in a bed of hay.

And think about what his message was, and why God came to earth.