I once read this from a Christmas devotion our family has…
“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 guest room available for them.” (NIV)
“In preparation for Christmas, a Sunday school teacher asked her children to write on a small slip of paper the kind of gift the infant Jesus would like and could use. They were to drop the slips into a box near a manger scene in the room. Some of the children misunderstood and, instead of the name of a gift, they put the gift itself. In the box, the teacher found a far of baby food, a small teddy bear, a toy truck, and a disposable diaper. At their party, the children were to “show and tell” their gifts. The little girl who had given the disposable diaper explained that Jesus was a real baby and that real babies need diapers.
Christmas is God becoming a real baby. Jesus sometimes slept quietly in his crib, and other times he twisted restlessly. He smiled, cried, got hungry, and needed his diapers changed. Incarnation may be a big word, but it means simply that God took on human form. God became touchable, squeezable, pinchable, and holdable. Jesus was pleasant and irritable, had good days and bad days, brought to those around him both joy and concern. God became all the way human. Christmas is a real story with a real baby.” (“Christmas Is…” pg. 30)
Immanuel. God with us. God became a real baby who grew to be a real man who had the same temptation, joys, struggles, fun times, laughter and tears just like we do. Because God had become flesh, just like us.
Jesus lived a life of “with-God-ness” just as we were born with the instinct to desire to not be alone and to experience relational love.
Dallas Willard wrote, “The emphasis throughout the Shepherd’s Psalm 23 is the fact that God is with us. The life without lack flows out of our relationship with him. Our challenge is to stay with him in the increasing belief that God truly desires to be with us. God wants to be with me. He wants to be with you.”
As Christmas Eve and Christmas morning become closer and closer, may you experience the “with-God-ness” like you never have before, where you experience the present of His presence with you, and where you experience the realness of Jesus’ shepherding love for you!
Have you ever imagined what Jesus would’ve been like as a baby, toddler, or kid of any age up through his teens? I think it would be fun to share some of the questions or thoughts we have about Jesus’ childhood! Ready, set comment!