God Entered the Human Story

Christmas Day Scriptures: Isaiah 7:14; 9:2–7 • Luke 2:1–20 • John 1:1–14

She brought forth her first born son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger.... Luke 2:7

On Sunday, during the children’s message, we talked about one of the names Scripture gives Jesus: Emmanuel. God with us. That phrase gets used so often it can lose its weight, but when you slow down and actually think about what it means, it becomes overwhelming.

Scripture tells us that God is holy. Not just good or loving, but other. So other that when God’s glory appears in the Old Testament, people fall to the ground, hide their faces, remove their shoes, and draw boundaries. God’s presence is not something human bodies can simply withstand. God’s substance would consume ours. When Moses begged for a glimpse, God had to shield him and only reveal his backside. Effectively, mooning Moses and he had to wear a veil over his face after. Scripture says it "shone" as in rays of light while others have interpreted this as disfigurement. Either way, Moses' substance could not endure that of God's.

And yet Christmas tells us that the same God whose glory cannot be contained chose to contain himself. The God who spoke creation into being chose to enter that same creation through a human body. John’s Gospel says it plainly: the Word through whom all things were made became flesh. Not as a visitor or a temporary costume, but flesh. Bone. Breath. Hunger. Dependence.

God did not lower the standard of holiness. God changed the way holiness shows up. Instead of fire on a mountain, holiness arrives as an infant. Instead of distance, God chooses proximity. Instead of overwhelming humanity, God reshapes divinity into something we can hold.

Luke places this moment firmly inside human systems. A census. An empire. Crowded roads. No room. God does not wait for better conditions. God enters the world as it is, political, unequal, busy, unprepared. Isaiah names what this means long before it happens. The people walking in darkness see light not because they escape it, but because light comes looking for them. A child is born. A son is given. Authority rests on his shoulders not because he dominates, but because he carries.

This is why Christmas matters. God does not save humanity from a distance. God saves by joining. By sharing our limits. By learning to be held. By allowing human arms to wrap around divine life. Emmanuel is not poetry. It is a theological earthquake. God with us means God vulnerable, God reachable, God close enough to embrace us without consuming us.

That is the miracle of Christmas. Not escape. Not sentiment. Incarnation. God enters the human story and refuses to leave it.

A Prayer for Christmas

Holy God, You are more than we can imagine, and yet You chose to come near. You entered the world You made not in power that overwhelms, but in flesh that could be held. Help us trust that You are truly with us, in our bodies, our systems, and our ordinary lives. Teach us to recognize holiness not only in glory, but in nearness. Not only in awe, but in love that stays. Amen.

Join Us for Christmas Eve Worship

Christmas Eve at 5:00 PM

In person at 106 North Chestnut Street, Scottdale, PA or online.

Come as you are. God has already come to you.