Rediscovering The Magic of Christmas

The Infinite Stepped Into Time: Rediscovering the Wonder of Christmas

We've heard the Christmas story countless times. We watch the same holiday specials year after year, recite familiar verses, and sing songs we've known since childhood. But somewhere between the repetition and the routine, something precious can slip away—the absolute wonder of what actually happened that first Christmas.
The truth is staggering: the God who holds the universe together chose to enter His own creation, not as a conquering king, but as a helpless infant.


The Descent of the Divine

Throughout human history, there has been an almost universal understanding that something greater exists beyond what we can see and touch. We sense a moral compass pointing toward absolute goodness, toward perfection we can never quite reach. Every religion and philosophy has attempted to bridge this gap, to climb the ladder toward the divine.
But Christmas tells a radically different story.
Rather than demanding we climb to Him, God descended to us. The infinite became finite. The eternal stepped into time. This is the heart of the incarnation—not humanity's striving upward, but divinity's humble descent downward.


The Word Became Flesh

The Gospel of John opens with these profound words: "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 nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men."
This Word—this eternal, creative force through whom all things exist—became flesh. The one who spoke galaxies into existence took on skin and bone. The author of life itself entered the story He had written.
The writer of Hebrews makes this even clearer, describing the Son as "the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, upholding all things by the word of His power." This is who came to us at Christmas—not merely a prophet or teacher, but the one who holds together every atom, every star, every moment of existence.


The Humility of the Incarnation

Consider the profound humility of this descent. Jesus didn't simply appear as a fully-grown man, stepping onto the world stage in dramatic fashion. The Christmas story reveals an even deeper condescension.
The incarnation began at conception—with a single cell in Mary's womb. God limited Himself so completely that He went through the entire human developmental process. From conception to birth, He experienced what every human experiences: cellular division, growth, development, vulnerability, dependence.
Think about that. The God who created DNA submitted Himself to its processes. The one who designed human biology experienced it from the inside. He who needs nothing became utterly dependent on a teenage mother for nine months.
And then, when the moment of birth arrived, there was no palace, no royal announcement to world leaders, no ceremony befitting deity. Instead, there was a stable, a manger—a feeding trough for animals—and shepherds from nearby fields as the first witnesses.
This is not how humans would script the arrival of God.


The Mystery of Divine and Human

Here's where the mystery deepens even further. As Jesus took on human nature—complete with physical limitations, hunger, tiredness, and vulnerability—He simultaneously retained His divine nature. Even as an infant nursing at His mother's breast, He was still upholding the universe.
One helpful way to grasp this paradox is to imagine an author writing himself into his own story. The author's presence on the pages doesn't limit his ability to continue writing or his knowledge of the entire narrative. In fact, his character's existence within the story depends entirely on his work outside of it.
Similarly, Jesus entered time and space while transcending both. He became subject to physical laws while remaining their sustainer. He experienced human limitation while exercising divine power.
This miracle didn't begin on Christmas Day—it began at conception and continued through every moment of development, growth, and birth.


Why It Matters

The fourth-century theologian Athanasius captured the purpose of this incredible descent with simple profundity: "God became like us so that we could become like Him."
This is the point. God didn't descend merely to demonstrate His power or to prove His existence. He came to heal us, to bridge the unbridgeable gap between holy God and sinful humanity. He came to make a way for us to be transformed, to be made more like Him through the work of His Spirit.
We couldn't climb to Him, so He descended to us. We couldn't save ourselves, so He became the Savior. We couldn't bridge the chasm, so He became the bridge.


Recovering the Wonder

As we celebrate Christmas once more, the challenge is to see past the familiarity. The lights, the carols, the wrapped presents, and the holiday traditions are all wonderful, but they can obscure the staggering reality beneath them.
The Lord of all creation—the one who holds galaxies in His hand—chose to enter a womb. The infinite became finite. The eternal entered time. The all-powerful became helpless. The worshiped became the infant who needed care.
And He did it all for you. For me. For humanity.
This Christmas, let's pause long enough to be speechless. Let's allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by the magnitude of divine love that would go to such lengths. Let's worship the God who didn't demand we reach Him, but who reached down to us in the most humble, vulnerable, beautiful way imaginable.
The miracle of Christmas isn't just that a baby was born. It's that this baby was God Himself, holding all things together even as He lay wrapped in swaddling clothes.
That truth should leave us breathless with wonder.