While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Luke 2:6-7
"I have often wondered," wrote Guy Duffield, "why the Roosevelts, the Rockefellers and the Kennedys wanted to go through all the agony and conflict of seeking and holding public offices. They certainly did not need the money. I think I have found the answer; it is self‑expression. It has been the desire of every human heart throughout history. A Michelangelo did it in marble; a Shakespeare with pen and ink; a Sir Christopher Wren achieved it in the more than 50 churches he designed and built."
Then writes Dr. Duffield, "God wanted to say something to mankind. He wanted to express Himself. But how? There was no language rich enough to contain the message. Man could not have understood it if there was, for the message was too great for his mind to receive. What was it God wanted to communicate? He wanted to communicate Himself. Self-expression!
"...God chose flesh as the ideal vehicle for the expression of Himself. There is nothing as eloquent as flesh: the twitching of the lips, the pallor of the countenance, the crimsoning of the cheek, the moistening of the eyes. These telltale signals are more eloquent than words could ever be. That is why God chose it. He selected the one element in humanity which He Himself did not share. The Word was made flesh‑‑soft, warm, live flesh that throbbed and felt and developed and matured. This Word, Jesus, is God. Look upon Him as a Babe in Bethlehem, a Boy in the carpenter shop in Nazareth, a Man in Galilee, and everywhere you see Him your heart cries, 'Almighty God!' A million universes could not tell us what Jesus tells us about the nature and character of God, for in Jesus the Word was made flesh."
The words which I have just quoted have special significance for me, in that the author was also the father of my wife and the grandfather of my children. When he talked of self‑expression, I see his life, the way he thought, the way he reasoned, reflected in his only child who became the mother of my three children. And in my son, I also see the grandfather. It can be no other way, for such is the result of heredity.
Long ago the Apostle John wrote, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us..." The immortal, invisible only God surrounded by the frailty of mankind. All the more it makes sense to realize that God expressed Himself in the Son, who was once asked, "Show us the Father and it will satisfy us!" and Jesus replied, "He who has seen me has seen the Father!"
John Milton, the English author and poet, wrote, "Welcome all wonders in one night‑‑/Eternity shut in a span,/ Summer in winter, day in night,/ Heaven in earth, and God in man. Blest little one,/ Whose all embracing birth/ Lifts earth to heaven, stoops heaven to earth." How better can we express it!
As this busy week begins to fade and another year is soon to dawn, remember, if you can, that the Child represents the Father, and the Father is the progenitor of the life which He imparts to His offspring. If the Father is seen expressing Himself in the Son, and the Son in His children, should it not follow that our lives should reflect the image of the Son as well? Paul thought so, for he wrote, " Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness" (Philippians 2:5‑7).
With the tinsel and glitter, may God give us enough peace and quiet that we may realize that in the Son we see the life of the Father, and in His life there is life eternal.
Resource reading: Isaiah 53:1-12
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