“For to us a child is born . . . and He will be called . . . Mighty God.” (Isaiah 9:6)
The absurdity of Isaiah’s prophecy came true a few centuries later when a child was born, grew up, and actually did live up to those expectations. Many people who encountered Jesus simply could not envision Him as an ordinary human, or even a human at all. Others couldn’t tolerate those who called Him divine. He was unclassifiable. Uniqueness precludes categories, and people have argued about Christ’s identity ever since He visited us. But Isaiah had it right, years before Jesus came. A child would be called things that only God can be called. People who argue that Jesus isn’t God need to go back a few centuries to a Jewish prophet and take up their case with him. A human being would be given divine names, he said, and to this point in world history, Jesus is the only One who has ever truly qualified for them.
That’s what’s so amazing about Christmas. It isn’t just that a Spirit became man – lots of religions talk about incarnations of spiritual beings – but that the uncreated entered creation, the eternal entered the temporal, and the infinite entered finitude. That which was completely “other” to human thinking expressed Himself in what was familiar to us. It’s a case of two different realities merging right before our eyes, and it still stretches our vision.
Christmas is a divine mystery. It doesn’t matter how many familiar hymns we sing, expected gifts we give, or traditional dinners we eat. A long time ago, infinite deity and fragile flesh met, And It Rocked Our World, it still does, and that’s OK. Let it. That’s what Christmas should be all about.
Have an amazing weekend. Make it better by worshiping The Lord with those who see the mystery of Christmas as reality because they have allowed Him to change their lives from the inside out.
All For Jesus – Nothing More, Nothing Less, Nothing Else.
Vic Alvarado 