Day #359 - Christmas Day

The Presence - A Devotional for living in Thanksgiving, Worship and Wonder

“And she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭2:7‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Photo by Chris Sowder on Unsplash

What brings you the most joy on Christmas morning?

For me the greatest joy on Christmas morning is time alone with my wife and children. Grace and I especially love getting to bless our children with gifts and watch their reaction as they open presents. It seems that each year gets more precious as they grow up. I think I enjoy it more each year because I realize the season with them could change soon as they get older and also because I just love thinking more deeply about what Jesus has done in His incarnation. One thing is for sure I sure love the feeling of Christmas morning after all the work, hustle and bustle, shopping, Christmas parties and special church services. It all leads up to the reminder that Jesus came. He is here for us. I can be present and remember “the Presence” of the One who changed everything.

When Mary gave birth to Jesus there was no room for them so they had to stay near a manger where they place Him, place for animals in the side of house. But He was here, God with us, Immanuel. He was here, the light in the darkness. He was here, the fulfillment of the prophets. The waiting was over. The Messiah had arrived.

I love what Maximus the Confessor said about the incarnation, “If he has brought to completion his mystical work of becoming human, having become like us in every way save without sin (cf Heb 4115), and even descended into the lower regions of the earth where the tyranny of sin compelled humanity, then God will also completely fulfill the goal of his mystical work of deifying humanity in every respect, of course, short of an identity of essence with God; and he will assimilate humanity to himself and elevate us to a position above all the heavens. It is to this exalted position that the natural magnitude of God's grace summons lowly humanity, out of a goodness that is infinite (1).” Jesus had accomplished God’s plan of humbling himself from heaven to earth so that He might elevate us from earth to heaven.

This humble birth, “the Presence” of the King as a newborn baby is hard to fathom in all its implications. St. Athanasius in His incredible work On the Incarnation gets to the end of His work and seems almost speechless at all that He has studied and written. Near the end of His work He says “And, in a word, the achievements of the Saviour, resulting from His becoming man, are of such kind and number, that if one should wish to enumerate them, he may be compared to men who gaze at the expanse of the sea and wish to count its waves. For as one cannot take in the whole of the waves with his eyes, for those which are coming on baffle the sense of him that attempts it; so for him that would take in all the achievements of Christ in the body, it is impossible to take in the whole, even by reckoning them up, as those which go beyond his thought are more than those he thinks he has taken in. Better is it, then, not to aim at speaking of the whole, where one cannot do justice even to a part, but, after mentioning one more, to leave the whole for you to marvel at. For all alike are marvellous, and wherever a man turns his glance, he may behold on that side the divinity of the Word, and be struck with exceeding great awe.”

He came to us. We didn’t make our way to Him. He changed everything. May we live in awe and wonder of all He has done.

Lord Jesus, King of glory, God of God and Light of Light, the One who holds all things but was born in a manger, the One who has shown us that greatness is found in humility, I marvel at Your incarnation. You have come to me. May I never lose the wonder of all You have done to become Man that I might know You and be exalted to eternal life with You forever. In Your most precious name, amen.

(1) St. Maximus the Confessor, On the Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ, p. 16.

(2) The Complete Works of St. Athanasius (20 Books) by Saint Athanasius