(Each year while I was the Director at CEFOntario I prepared a special Christmas letter, as a ministry to those who were involved in CEF's work. A few years ago I wrote the following letter, titled "Why a Baby?". For me it's one of my favourite things I've ever written, and generated a lot of response. I'd like to share it with you this Christmas. I hope it will be a blessing to you.)
What
comes to your mind when you hear the word Christmas? Do you have a mental picture of family opening
gifts around the Christmas tree or singing carols by the piano or sitting
around a table sharing favourite Christmas treats? For most of us the word Christmas invokes
warm memories of loved family traditions.
As Christians our thoughts almost certainly include images of Mary and
Joseph, along with a contingent of angels and shepherds and wise men on camels. And of course central to all is a baby in a
manger. That baby is what it’s all
about. But have you ever wondered, why a
baby?
If
the planning had been left to me I might have had Jesus appear on the scene as
a fully grown man. Maybe he would simply
walk out of the wilderness one day as a mature thirty year old ready to begin
his ministry of teaching and healing and sacrifice. Imagine the impact. Instead of someone everyone knew from a
child, who had grown up among them, a mysterious figure with no known background
comes out of nowhere to heal sick people and calm storms and raise the
dead? It certainly would have made for a
different kind of Christmas.
But
God didn’t choose to have his Son appear out of the mist like an alien or a
miracle working hero in a Hollywood movie.
In God’s plan Jesus came the way humans do, as a helpless infant. Not only that, he came to a poor family in the
most humble of circumstances. No royal
family, no wealth or rank or privilege. For
other than a few people God spoke to especially, the baby named Jesus appeared
to be an ordinary child at best. Who
would come up with a plan like this? Certainly
I wouldn’t. But this was God’s way.
I’ve
learned that God doesn’t do anything without good reason, so I’ve been pondering
this question - why did Jesus come as a baby?
Is it so we can have a really cool looking nativity scene under the
Christmas tree? Is it so we can get
together and sing heartwarming carols about a night filled with wondrous
miracles? Did God come up with this plan
so children could re-enact the Christmas story complete with a donkey, a gruff
innkeeper in a bathrobe, and a stable filled with cardboard livestock? I love Christmas and all the traditions that
spring from the birth of baby Jesus in the stable, but I have to think there’s more
to it than that. I’m left with the
question, why a baby?
Students
of theology may come up with something deeper, but personally I’ve settled on an
answer that works for me. It’s a
profound truth, and while it may not be new to you, for me it gives Christmas a
wonderful dimension I haven’t considered enough. I think Jesus came as a baby - to a poor
family - in the most humble of circumstances - because part of God’s plan to save me was to experience what it was
like to be me.
Just
think of it. Though he didn’t have to do
it, Jesus chose to place himself in a little human body that would grow up suffering
skinned knees and toothaches and stuffy noses and bumped heads. Part of his plan was to experience what I
feel when facing fears and hurts and temptations. He wanted to know firsthand what it was like
for me in times of discouragement or uncertainty, or when I’ve been
misunderstood. He grew up and lived life
as a human being to know the highs and lows I can go through, to experience the
complexities that arise in my relationships, and to know what it’s like to be
hungry or in pain. He wanted to live the
life I live.
That’s
what the baby in the manger tells me.
The baby assures me God is not just some distant super being, but a God who
is close, who can understand what I feel and how I feel. That tiny child wrapped in swaddling clothes
in a smelly old barn reminds me that the Son of God was tempted and hurt and
afraid and discouraged – just like me.
Could
God have done it some other way? I think
so. I’m pretty sure He could have had a perfect
adult Jesus suddenly appear on the scene and sacrifice himself for my sin and
yours. But for me both the sacrifice and
the love it represents are somehow magnified when I think how God deliberately
put himself in the place where he could grow up experiencing what it means to
be me. I don’t pretend to really grasp
all it meant for God to become a human being, but I do understand this. The magnitude of that sacrifice says in great
big bold letters that GOD LOVES ME!
It’s
hard to imagine what it would be like to celebrate Christmas without the baby
in the manger. It’s hard to picture
being without the angels and wise men and shining stars. Along with our family traditions, these are
the things that make Christmas feel like Christmas. But as we enter this Christmas season I think
I’ll look at that baby in the nativity scene with a new appreciation. He’ll be more than part of the Christmas
tradition. He’ll be God saying to me, “I
don’t just love you. I understand you.”
Until
that remarkable night in Bethlehem God was God, man was man, and the only
bridge was a set of laws I couldn’t possibly follow. The birth of a baby changed all that. That baby, the Jesus I serve, knows me and
empathizes with me and pours out his grace toward me. Thank you God for the baby in the manger!
May
the Lord Jesus who lived his life for us, and then gave it for us, be close to
you and yours during this Christmas season.
Rob
Lukings