Merry Christmas

I know that sometimes people think that I see things differently than others do. I'm not sure why, I just keep looking from different perspectives to try to find out what is really happening.

Take the Christmas story for example: it seems that the focus of Christmas is always about the birth of the Christ (or Messiah, Anointed One, Savior,...Jesus). We seem to want to look at the human part of the God/man...and why not? After all, we're human. We look at the gift of Christmas and later we'll look at the great sacrifice that the man Jesus makes at Calvary. I tend to think that the greater sacrifice was made that night when God left heaven and took on the flesh of man.

In Paul's letter to the church at Philippi, he says that we should all have the attitude of Jesus, who didn't consider his godly nature as something to be held on to. But rather, he set aside those things to take on the role of a servant and humbled himself and became obedient to death...even death on the cross.

We think of God as a being that is omnipresent (not confined by space/time; all places at once), omnipotent (all powerful), and omniscient (all knowing). Jesus, though he remained fully God, set these things aside to become fully human. The all present being humbled himself to be confined in the body of a human...and not just any human, a baby. In a moment, He went from the all powerful God that spoke the world into existence, to an infant child that was completely helpless. From omnipotent God to a baby that has to cry if he's hungry and needs to be fed; or is cold and wants to be held; or if he's soiled himself and needs to be changed. It's a bit hard to grasp the idea of God needing his diaper changed...but he did.

The Bible also tells us that he grew in wisdom and in stature before God and men--he learned. Something tells me that he had a better memory than I do and that he was more attentive to his studies. This God/boy knew that there was a purpose to his being here on Earth.

Somehow I can't help but think that the sacrifice that Jesus made to come to Earth (Christmas) was far greater than the sacrifice Jesus made when He was crucified. In either case, the love that this God demonstrates is far beyond what I can imagine. God became man and then died a brutal death so that I could have eternal life. So that you can have eternal life.

Merry Christmas,

John