Though I know the story, though I have pondered the texts, I simply cannot grasp the full significance of the Incarnation. How does the One who has always been and who always will be become a baby born at a given time, to die at the appointed hour; how does the One who created mankind, the Heavens, and the earth become a man to walk on His created earth; how does the One whose Home is Heaven be born in the animals' barn?
Everything seems backwards. The Messiah does not come in strength and power but in lowliness and humility. The King of Kings is not born in a palace but in a cattle stall. He is not raised as a king's son, but as the son of a poor young couple of Nazareth.
As a man, the Messiah was subject to the same temptations, hunger, cold, thirst that we know. He entered - willingly - into every aspect of what it means to be human. It is God who came and fully entered the human condition. Isaiah foretold that this child, this baby born of Mary, shall be called Emmanuel: God with us.
God comes to dwell with us; it is inconceivable mystery.
"Christ, by highest heaven adored; Christ, the everlasting Lord!
Late in time behold him come, Offspring of the virgin's womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; Hail the incarnate Deity,
Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel."
- Hark! The Herald Angels Sing by Charles Wesley
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