For there is born to you…

We read those words each Christmas, but amid the donkeys and cattle, mangers and straw, we overlook them. We breeze through the text to get to the important part—a Savior who is Christ the Lord. Christmas is about the baby Jesus, but I don’t want you to miss an important point. He was born! Unlike granddaddy Adam, Jesus was born a vulnerable infant that needed nurture and protection. Our Lord is, in many ways, more human than Adam.

Adam wasn’t born. He was created, albeit in the image of God, yet he did not struggle through the course of life as a baby, weak and vulnerable. He did not know the smallness of life as a child. He never experienced the tender love of a motherly breast or a caring father. There is no way Adam could know how I feel. There is no way that Adam could know the challenges of being a teenager. I’m not sure that Adam is the kind of guy who could help me through my life’s challenges.

Jesus does not step into life at midlife. He is rocked in the arms of a loving mother and learned his carpentry skills from a loving father. He knows the inner drive to grow up too fast when he stays behind in the Temple. Unlike Adam, Jesus experiences life from the cradle to the grave. This is a guy I can relate to.

I guess this is what is mean by “God with us.” Unlike the Temple, the Holy of Holies was off-limits to almost everyone. God was inaccessible, veiled behind the curtain like some Wizard of Oz. Like Dorothy and her companions, I’m sure some stood wondering if there was anything behind that majestic veil. But Jesus comes in the flesh, putting on skin and hair to be the physical embodiment of God. Through the records of Holy Scripture, we watch Jesus reveal more about himself in every passing chapter, showing us he is truly God and truly human.

His wisdom and teaching aren’t what we hear in the religious and intellectual circles. His compassion isn’t like the organized and institutionalized work of community groups. He seems to wander as a homeless man, couch surfing in the homes of hospitable hosts, without a million-dollar mansion in sight. No jet planes. No book deals—just Jesus.

Just Jesus—born in the flesh, but for what? For Joy! Luke 1:44 tells us that John the Baptist jumped for joy in his mother’s womb at the presence of the pregnant Mary. Luke 2:10 records the proclamation of the angelic message of great joy to all people. The Magi of Matthew 2:10 were willed with exceedingly great joy at just the sight of the Natal Star. But isn’t everyone joyful at the idea of pregnancy and new life? Who doesn’t love a little bundle of joy? This bundle of joy isn’t a normal baby; he is the eternal hope.

Emmanuel signals hope! He is hope for the person struggling to find sufficient work to provide for his family. He is hope for the single mother trying to be both parents for her children. He is hope for the dying believer whose final chapter is about to close. Adam doesn’t offer much hope to any of these people, but Jesus—just Jesus—offers hope that produces exceeding joy.

Christmas is a time to renew our hope and rekindle our joy for the cooing baby who is God incarnate. This year, when our vision of hope and joy has grown dim, remember that Jesus is with us in ways no other human, even Adam, could be.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. ~ 1 Peter 1:3-8