Wondering at the Incarnation
‘Lo within a manger lies he who built the starry skies’.
How often have you sung those words during the Christmas season? You know the proverb, ‘Familiarity breeds contempt’; if not contempt, have these stunning words become so commonplace and familiar that you sing them unmoved, unaffected by their inexplicable wonder?
Consider just what these stunning words are saying: The Creator of all things, the One who spoke the myriads of stars into existence, the everlasting God, took our frail humanity to himself in a virgin’s womb, never to cast it off. This transcends all the fantasy ever written. The words take us into ‘realms unknown’.
And yet, this is what the Bible, God’s written word tells us, ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us’. Christians are ‘unembarrassed supernaturalists’. Where understanding fails, we bow down and worship, imitating the mysterious Magi (Matthew 2:11).
How you react and respond to the incarnation reveals the health or otherwise of your Christian profession. Shepherds marvelled, angels sang, the Magi worshiped… what about you?
