Luke 2:6-7 (NIV) While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

When our daughter-in-law became pregnant, we eagerly awaited the day that the baby would be born. It was about this same time last year that the time came for the baby to be born. She gave birth to her firstborn, a son. This is where the similarity between what she experienced and the passage of scripture above end. She didn't have to put her baby son in a manger. There was a clean hospital crib for the baby to be in while she was in the hospital. There is one more difference...the baby that she bore, although beautiful and precious, was not...God.

God made the most amazing and unimaginable physical entrance into our world that anyone could have thought of or imagined. God, in His infinite wisdom, came as a baby. It is hard to wrap our minds around the fact that God humbled Himself to that extent, even having to depend on Mary and Joseph to feed and take care of Him until He was old enough to take care of Himself. Even talking about Jesus, God incarnate, in terms of age is mind-boggling, since God has always existed. He exists outside of time but chose to come into our timeline for one specific purpose: to save the people that He created. That includes, you and me.

That He would even want to do that, fully knowing what we would do to Him, is unbelievable. But the way He came is even more unbelievable. God, being Sovereign, could have come into our world any way that He wanted to. He could have miraculously appeared in the flesh as a full-grown person if He so desired. He could have just appeared in Bethlehem to start His earthly ministry right away. But He chose to come the way that He came, as a baby born to a virgin, just to make sure that people knew that He was no ordinary child, but God Himself. He didn't do that to learn what it is to be human and to experience what we experience from baby to adulthood. Being God, He is all-knowing and there isn't anything He doesn't already know. He came as a baby for our sake. He came that way so that we would know that He knows. Being human as we are, we are prone to doubt. But Jesus made sure that we knew that He experienced everything that we experience, so that when we run to Him for comfort or for help, we know in our hearts and minds that He understands. What a God we serve! This Christmas, remember and celebrate how Jesus came into our world for our sake. He did it out of love for you and me and this love has reached and permeated our hearts. Glory to God in the highest for our God, our Savior, our Lord, and our King!

Pastor Joey Vazquez