“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:1-3).
On Christmas, God gives us the gift of the incarnation, of God becoming a man. As we read in the scripture for today, Jesus, the Word, had existed from all eternity, and through Him, the universe was created. On Christmas, we remember how the invisible, uncreated, all-powerful God humbled himself and became like one of us. The God who created the heavens and the earth became a vulnerable human. He sweated, cried and got fatigued. He also experienced pain, illness, rejection, abuse, and violence like us. In the incarnation, God shared our pain, thereby allowing Jesus to sympathize forever with our misery and sorrows.
If you look at any other religion, you can take away its founder and you will still have its core doctrines. For example, if you take Mohamed from Islam or Buddha from Buddhism, you can still have the same precepts of the religion, but not with Christianity. A church without a flesh and blood Christ is Christianity no longer.
Christianity is not only a set of ideas or doctrines. Instead, it is based on a historical person born around 2,000 years ago. And that should give us much joy because in becoming man, He made a way for us to be with him forever. And that is the gift of the incarnation. The divine became human, and the human became divine. As the ancient theologian, Athanasius said: “God became man that man might become like God”.
Let us celebrate this season that God became one of us so that we might become like Him!