Advent: Why A Christmas?

There are lots of questions about Christmas. The whole thing seems to be clouded in mystery. We as Christ followers understand the basic concept. God became a man, in the form of a baby, born of a virgin, to accomplish the redemption of man.

We understand He did this because man needed a Savior, we needed someone to rescue us from the consequences of sin. But only a perfect sacrifice could accomplish that. We know that, in ourselves, there is nothing that we could ever make good enough, right enough, clean enough, to usher us into the holy presence of God.

But of all the ways that God could accomplish this thing, why did He choose to come the way He did- as a tiny, helpless infant? Born in a stable? The child of a carpenter and a young virgin?

Now, I understand that there are likely some pretty smart theologians out there who can answer this questions, citing chapter and verse like a champ.

But honestly, do you ever wonder if, once we get to heaven and we can ask Him why, He just might surprise us with His answer? Maybe He just really wanted to experience the joy and freedom of being a kid.  Kids are cool, after all!

Of course, back then there was no such thing as Kodak or Polaroid, but I have to imagine there just might be countless baby Jesus pictures burned into the memory of the Heavenly Father.

Oh, these are all just ramblings, and there’s no way I intend to minimize the incarnation of Jesus, to cause a shadow of doubt or sacrilege to fall over this most holy of times.  I guess sometimes I just thing that these lives He gave to us with their seasons of childhood, teenage years, and all the various stages of adulthood, might just have been something that He wanted to experience like us, too. He wanted to (and still wants to) relate to us in a personal way, to experience all that we get to experience as part of this life.

And likewise, He wants us to return those feelings. Maybe this Christmas our hearts will be a little more softened toward the baby Jesus, and thus more softened toward our Savior, the Christ.