Incarnation is a beautiful word. It’s almost ornate in the way it sounds. But what does it mean exactly?
Our Christmas Day message, delivered by the Rev. Jonathan Meyer digs into the ordinary and the extraordinary of the incarnation. He encourages us to imagine looking at the manger where Jesus had just been placed:
If you closed your eyes right now and pictured it in your head, what is the sight that greets you when you look at it? Would it be some sort of beaming light? Some glory shining forth in the midst of all of that hay?
No, in all likelihood, that’s not what it was. But maybe it was a cute, cuddly, and utterly unremarkable baby boy. Something we see all the time.
If God’s Word is to be believed, Jesus was a baby just like you, me, any other. And in this moment, that’s actually a bit odd.
Listening to John’s Gospel, we hear some amazing things. It starts off, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” It talks about the light shining in the darkness, this creator coming to His own. And it caps off with, “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” That is a humongous thing!
This isn’t just anyone there in that manger. It’s the same one Who hovered over the face of the deep, there in the beginning, Who spoke into the darkness, the void; said, “Let there be light.” and created everything. That Word, becoming flesh, is absolutely no small deal!
As you look forward to celebrating Christmas, may you remember that our God became man so that He could die for us. He became man so that we could see that unremarkable baby, knowing that He became unremarkable so that we might have a life that’s marked by Him, a new eternal life in our Savior Jesus Christ.