At Christmas I am drawn to the amazing message of God becoming man. I find the incarnation invites me to adoration and wonder. The quiet beauty and yet hidden power of the event is both peaceful and unsettling at the same time.
Humility
... who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. Philippians 2:6-7
How can we ever comprehend the humility of God? It is much easier to understand the power and glory of God, but so much harder to grasp the humility of God. Yet Philippians 2 uses Christ's willingness to become one of us as the supreme example of humility.
Mediator
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15
Jesus became man so that He could be the perfect High Priest to mediate between God and man. God experienced all of what it means to be human so that He could sympathize with our struggles. Only a God/Man could truly understand, mediate and save.
Love
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. John 3:16-17
God loved us so much that He sent his only Son. Jesus loved us so much that he willingly came. It was God's love that is on display at the incarnation. Jesus humbly becoming a baby so that we can be saved through Him.
Mystery
All of this brings peace, but it also unsettles me. I don't like mystery. I want to understand. Yet when I ponder the incarnation I am always left with mystery. What was it like for Jesus to become a baby? When did He comprehend who He was? What does it mean that He was fully God and fully man? What was He like as a child? What was it like to have him as a brother? When He emptied Himself to become man, what did He lay aside? So many questions and so few answers that I can fully grasp.
Adoration
And so I am left with wonder and adoration.
Adore
Come let us adore
Oh come let us adore him
The Lord, worship Christ, the Lord
Let all that is within us
Adore
(Adore by Graham Kendrick and Martin Chalk)