Surprised by the Same Old Story… Again

Advent Reflections on the Incarnation

This Christian life is a great mystery,
far exceeding our understanding,
but some things are clear enough:
He appeared in a human body,
was proved right by the invisible Spirit,
was seen by angels.
He was proclaimed among all kinds of peoples,
believed in all over the world,
taken up into heavenly glory.

1 Timothy 3:16 (MSG)

What a miracle of condescension is here, that God should manifest himself in flesh. It needs not so much to be preached upon as to be pondered in the heart. It needs that you sit down in quiet, and consider how he who made you became like you, he who is your God became your brother man. He who is adored of angels once lay in a manger; he who feeds all living things hungered and was athirst; he who oversees all worlds as God, was, as a man, made to sleep, to suffer, and to die like yourselves. It is a wonder of condescension!

~Charles Spurgeon

Every Advent I anticipate revisiting the nativity story…again. The story seems so familiar and repetitive that feeling excited about it seems a bit overboard, don’t you think? Our kids enjoy pulling out the nativity sets each year and find comfort in the familiarity of the figurines, however unrealistic they might be… made of Legos, felt, and porcelain. Although there is comfort to be found in the familiar, I think it’s the mystery of the Incarnation that continues to confound and bring me back again and again in wonder. I find I cannot fully grasp the thought that God would come here… come to this earth, in the form he took, to a teenage girl, in such weakness and poverty, announced first to the lowest of the low. Again, my heart every year asks “Why?” Who would even try to make up a story like this? That’s what makes it so unbelievable yet beautiful. No human would ever come up with such a humiliating plan. I’m pretty sure we’d opt for power and palaces, riches and huge displays announcing his coming to the most “important” people.

In his essay, The Dangers of Advent, J.B. Phillips reflects on Christ’s humble yet profound entrance:

By far the most important and significant event in the whole course of human history will be celebrated, with or without understanding, at the end of this season, Advent. The towering miracle of God’s visit to this planet on which we live will be glossed over, brushed aside or rendered impotent by over-familiarity. Even by the believer the full weight of the event is not always appreciated….

What we are in fact celebrating is the awe-inspiring humility of God, and no amount of familiarity with the trappings of Christmas should ever blind us to its quiet but explosive significance. Amid the sparkle and the color and music of the day’s celebration we do well to remember that God’s insertion of himself into human history was achieved with an almost frightening quietness and humility….

Behind all of our fun and games at Christmastime, we should not try to escape a sense of awe, almost a sense of fright, at what God has done. We must never allow anything to blind us to the true significance of what happened at Bethlehem so long ago. Nothing can alter the fact that we live on a visited planet.

So there’s something in this familiar story that brings me back every year longing to understand, to unwrap the mystery a little more, to try to grasp its unfathomable beauty…for me, for us. If I could master its meaning fully, I might move on and read a new story. But what if God, in his wisdom, made this story so unbelievable that it’s only through His work in us that we begin to experience its meaning, maybe just a little more each year? It’s alright if we can’t comprehend the mystery of the Incarnation. After all, we are all creatures with limits, including our knowledge and ability to understand the ways of God. What if these mysteries make God’s story that much greater and provokes in us an awe to worship a God who is also mysterious? A God whose ways are bigger and better than ours? What if we spend a lifetime trying to understand them?  

If God’s incomprehensibility does not grip us in a word,
if it does not draw us into his superluminous darkness,
if it does not call us out of the little house of our homely, close-hugged truths…
we have misunderstood the words of Christianity.

~Karl Rahner

 Below is one of the most subtly beautiful depictions of the story of Christ’s humble entrance into our broken world that I have seen. We have shown this to our children for several years and are surprised by the conclusion drawn from the video’s creator. Should Christ’s first coming as a baby primarily be a motivator to go and do good like He did? Or is it the story of Christ coming to be our good, our righteousness, our salvation? Think about what this humble gift provokes in your heart…to attempt to be “better” or to worship a God who encompasses all goodness and perfect love for us?  

Many Christmas Blessings,

Melissa Lien