By all appearances, it might have been another mundane moment. After all, every single minute, women all around the world, bring new life into the world.
But this young girl wasn’t carrying just any baby. She was carrying the one who is life himself, the eternal, durable, incorruptible, eternal Son of God - Jesus, who is the light of all humankind.
“Gloria In Excelsis Deo!” It means, “Glory in the highest to God,” and it’s the song the angels sang when they announced Jesus’ birth to the shepherds. The presence of God made known - not to leaders and kings, but to people like you and me.
God’s glory was made manifest in the mundane.
The Word Became Flesh
John 1:1-5
In the beginning the Word already existed.
The Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The Savior of humanity was born a human being.
I try to wrap my mind around this fact. How does God, the one who spoke everything into existence, become a tiny speechless infant?
In Jesus’ body, the Immortal One, the Divine Son was woven together with humanity’s wounded nature.
The truth is, we were all sick with sin and destined for death, so our Creator did the only thing that could be done. God the Son took on human nature with all its limitations to recreate a humanity healed from sin and eternally united with God.
God put on flesh and dwelt among us to make possible a new way of being human – the only way which could lead us to life – the way of being human in the presence of God.
Jesus' Birth in Bethlehem
Luke 2:1-7
At that time the Roman emperor
, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.)
All Returned to their own ancestral towns to register for this census.
And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David’s ancient home.
He travelled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee.
He took with him Mary, to whom he was engaged, who was now expecting a child.
And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born.
She gave birth to her first-born son.
She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.