We tend not to think about all the aspects of Jesus\u2019s life. We think about His ministry, His teaching and parables, His prayers, often enough: or so we should.<\/p>\n
But when we think of His life, sometimes we are prejudiced by Sunday-school pamphlets, and greeting cards, and the holiday industries, to compartmentalize the events in His life \u2013 to view them as the settings and backgrounds for the really important stuff.<\/p>\n
But it is not only surprising, but important to our faith, to think about all the aspects of Jesus\u2019s life. It is very significant, for instance, that He came into the world pretty much as He left it: despised and disregarded; acknowledged for who He was by hardly anyone; a mere handful of people with Him at each event (but His mother, always there); in a borrowed stable at His birth, in a borrowed tomb at His death.<\/p>\n
To think about these aspects confronts us with many things. One, at the Christmas season, is this: the simultaneous humility and grandeur of the incarnate God. For there was no \u201carc\u201d to Jesus\u2019s life, no \u201ccareer\u201d in the modern sense. He didn\u2019t become flesh and dwell among us to incorporate a ministry, to establish a denomination, to build a business \u2013 even a religious, spiritual, faith-based organization as we call things today.<\/p>\n
He came to save humanity from its sins, to offer the way to salvation, to redeem creation as the One True Way. Therefore His birth is very similar to His death\u2026 and it should cause us to think not just about what He did, but who He was.<\/p>\n
Isaiah had prophesied: \u201c\u2026unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.\u201d Notice that the \u201cshalls\u201d refer to the triumphant Jesus \u2013 still prophetic? \u2013 the \u201cis\u201d word referring to a child, to a son. Since Isaiah lived hundreds of years before Jesus, these logically could have been \u201cshalls\u201d too.<\/p>\n
That aspect is for us to think about today. No less important than the words of Jesus or His coming reign\u2026 is the PERSON of Jesus. We all have had children, or have been children! Of course God wanted us to identify with His incarnate Self in the most powerful \u2013 and the most tender \u2013 way He could. A baby. A son.<\/p>\n
He SHALL be called mighty; He SHALL be our counselor. But right now think of Him as a baby.<\/p>\n
Hold Him in your arms. Love Him as He loves you.<\/p>\n
Beautiful imagery accompanies a tender new song called \u201cFor Unto Us a Child is Born.\u201d<\/p>\n