A Christmastime Reflection on Phil. 2

At Christmas, we take time to remember how the Alpha and Omega, the great I AM, the Creator of the universe, chose to fit Himself into the pitiful shape of a lowly human.

And we remember that He came as not just any human, but as the most helpless of us all--the infant.

And even more, we remember that he came not only as an infant, but as a babe born to parents from a pathetic town ("Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" John 1:46), born in a (cold? smelly?) stable, placed to rest in an animal's feeding trough.

And even on top of this, we remember that He lowered Himself to this helpless state out of pure love for mankind. He became the weak to save the weak, even when most didn't and most don't realize that that is what we are. Jesus the Christ as a tiny baby--Praise God for His wisdom and mercy in this plan for salvation!

Even as sinfully corrupted people, we can recognize the unadulterated beauty of a baby. In spite of a baby's being unable to offer anything but itself--that is, a baby has no services or goods to give (and on the contrary, it REQUIRES, even DEMANDS, so many in turn!)--the baby has become a symbol of the gift of life, the "real" meaning of life, and all that is good in the world.

Now take all those warm fuzzies you get when you think of a baby, and somehow conceptualize it as the innocence that Christ maintained even as He grew to be a man, and even as He hung on the cross. A baby cruelly tortured and hung on a cross? That sounds perverse to even mention. But take that feeling of perversity and note that it is really just a tiny fraction of what we SHOULD be feeling when we think of how our sins--our actual, personal, day-to-day sins--are what required that sacrifice to be made.

cherub skin, nothing softer
sweet-smelling head of downy fuzz
joyous smile, nothing purer
cooing as a baby does

What right had we to pierce that supple skin,
to drive the metal shafts, the spear within,
to etch our Very Mercy's head, so meek and mild,
to change compassion's King to sorrow's child?

Praise God for His mercy, indeed. Wishing you a very merry, very humbling Christmastime...