The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. John 1:14
God.
This is the miracle of Christmas. The infinite God became human. He laid aside His heavenly majesty to be born a baby, went from all powerful, all knowing and omnipresent to having to cry to have even His most basic needs met. He came into our world and lived with us, physically, for the first time since the garden. He lived a perfect life as an example to us all and then laid down that perfect life for imperfect people like you and me. This is what He did for us.
It’s called the incarnation. God becomes man. God becomes Jesus and here’s where it gets interesting. In this time of giving gifts, some in the church will bring forth a valuable cliche about being careful not to put the gift before the giver. It’s good advice and it will help us toy avoid the sin of idolatry, but don’t forget the point of the incarnation. In the incarnation. the Giver became the Gift. Christ came to die to set us free, something we could have never done for ourselves, the ultimate Gift.
I think there is a call on Christians to live incarnational lives. That just as Christ came to give himself for us, when we give of ourselves to others in the name of Christ, we incarnate Christ. We represent Him to the world. We show them that He is real and He loves them. When we live as givers in the name of Christ, we too can become a gift.
This Christmas season, don’t just receive gifts, don’t just give gifts, be a gift to the glory of God
AMOKArts 