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Luke 2:6-7
And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

God took on flesh. The One who spoke the world into existence could only make the sounds of a baby’s cry. The One who formed man from dust was confined by strips of cloth. The One who breathed life into man took his first breaths in a dark cave used to house animals. The Creator lay helpless and dependent on a young girl for his own existence. 

Without protocol or pomp, the Prince of Peace entered the human race. All heaven looked on as God wrote his story of love in living letters. Jesus became, in Paul’s words, “the image of the invisible God.” In the words of the well-known Christmas carol O Little Town of Bethlehem, 

Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting light—
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight.

Why did God become flesh? Why did God humble himself to become a man? The writer of the Hebrews tells us that it was for the joy of providing man the way to God (Hebrews 12:1-2). This joy that allowed Jesus to endure the cross is the same joy he gives us through life’s most challenging times. It’s real joy that runs through the deepest channels of our hearts. 

O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray; Cast out our sin and enter in—be born in us today. We hear the Christmas angels; the great glad tidings tell; O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Immanuel!