The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
We are now officially in advent though I must say this year I've been looking forward to Christmas for some time! The birth of Jesus Christ was prophesied hundreds of years before the event took place. One of the prophecies in Isaiah 7:14 says, ‘….the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel.’ (which means God with us). So this plan was already in place – a plan that would reunite mankind with God through the eventual death on the cross and resurrection of Jesus.
These things seem impossible, and in the natural realm they are, but God is supernatural – nothing is impossible for him. Genesis 1:1 says that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth – both the spiritual realm and the natural, earthly realm. The Word is Jesus and it was by his Word that God created the heavens and the earth – these realms were spoken into existence. The creation of the body of Jesus was no different, and the Holy Spirit was the Word, or in the Greek language spora (where we get our word sperm) that started the process.
Jesus had visited earth before he literally became a person and made his home with mankind – every time we see a visitation of the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament, we are seeing Jesus. He visited Abraham to make his covenant with the Jews, appeared as a burning bush to Moses and appeared with Daniel and his friends in the fiery furnace – among other times. But this time was different – he became one of us so that he could be a once and for all sacrifice on our behalf. Comparisons are tricky but I think a human becoming a plankton might help us visualise it. God’s glory and splendour are too immense for us to imagine, but he gave it all up to come to earth as a helpless baby on the first Christmas Day.
The birth of Jesus Christ has impacted the world far more than any other event – we even get our dates from it. We celebrate Christmas because of the birth of Jesus, whether we have the exact date or may have got a few things wrong in our nativity plays (like donkeys or numbers of kings!), we celebrate that God would care so much about us that he was prepared to leave the splendour of heaven, become a mortal, and show us his true nature. He wanted to draw us back into a loving relationship with himself.
That is something worth celebrating.
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God, and saying,
‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests.’
Luke 2:13-14