Topic: Christmas

The Epiphany has not ended; it shines forth to this day, radiating out from the day of Christ’s Incarnation; it is the very reason we as Gentiles can share in the riches of Christ’s inheritance. This means that we who have received this light have the responsibility to both continually seek its source and reflect it so that others may do the same.

God spoke the universe into existence. God created all we can and cannot see. This same Divinity broke into time and space, born of a Pure Virgin, to save all of humanity. But we in our folly refuse to accept this glorious truth while at the same time believing we will make science fiction a reality. This contradiction must not be so for the professing Christian.

The mystery of the Incarnation – literally “taking on flesh”, that Christ Jesus, fully human yet fully divine, was born of a pure Virgin – that mystery reminds us that the God of the universe is real, and He loves us so much that he chose to be born among us, that he may sympathize with our weaknesses and perfectly redeem all the pain and suffering we face in life.

The Christian celebration of Christmas extends well beyond the limits of its cultural and commercial celebration. As the world is quick to abandon the celebration of Christmas, the holidays become absent of joy – because they are starving for truth. They are held by a pagan law, spiritually starving. At Christmas, in Christ’s Incarnation, we boldly proclaim the miracle that sets us free from the law of sin and fills us with eternal joy, because joy doesn’t come from a holiday, but from Christ himself.

God’s eternal Word, the Logos, Jesus Christ, who existed in the Godhead from eternity past, who participated in the creation of the world, who is the ground and pinnacle of all truth, humbled himself and took on a body like ours, flesh and bones and all, and so manifested His glory to us on the stage of human history. And in that enormous moment, in that greatest paradox of all time, God’s infinite glory and perfect Truth met our dirty, humble, and broken existence. In that moment, God was fulfilling His promise to provide us a Savior to help us bridge the chasm between the profane and the divine.

The Nativity of our Lord marks the beautiful mystery of the Incarnation, the Word made flesh, Emmanuel, God with us. This Christmas Eve, the Rev. Mark Galloway invites us to wonder and worship at the miracle of Christ’s blessed birth – God dwelling among us.