A week or so ago, during staff morning devotions at school, one of the teachers shared some video footage of short interviews he had done with students in our primary school, asking them questions about God. One of the questions was what they were thankful to God for. Many knew the right answer to give at this point, and only a few perhaps spoke from their hearts. One young student amusingly said he was thankful to God "for dying for our sins and giving us baby Jesus". This answer, I must admit, intrigued me; what was the distinctiveness of the gift of baby Jesus, apart from the fact that He would grow up to die for our sins? The two gifts did not seem connected in this student's mind?
Of course, the incarnation is not only significant for Jesus' death, though that is the ultimate point of it all. And, while prayers to or about Baby Jesus unavoidably make many think of racing car driver Ricky Bobby and his painfully ludicrous dinner-table grace, there is surely significance in the fact that, while "Jesus did grow up", He also came to this earth as a baby.
One of the Old Testament prophecies which often comes out at Christmas is found in Micah 5, in which the prophet assures Israel that they will be saved from their enemies, through the Messiah being born into a highly unlikely place - Bethlehem, a small and insignificant village, famous only for being also the birthplace of King David. That king, though the greatest king of Israel, was also notable for being, at first glance, not the sort you would choose as king: he was short and a bit weedy, compared to his tall, strapping brothers. But God chose him, and chose Bethlehem, and chose to be born as a baby in Bethlehem.
And the meaning of this is? Certainly not that God is insignificant or small. The absurdity of Ricky Bobby's grace is not that he acknowledges the truth that God came as a baby, but that he thinks he can view God however he likes. It isn't only his view of God as a baby that is questionable but that he uses his prayer for product placement and as a means of impressing God so that he can win the race the next day. This kind of view of God misses the point altogether; He is not to be remade in our image.
No, but it is an amazing, wonderful mystery: that God, though all-powerful, chose to be humble, to honour the small and insignificant, what Paul later calls "the despised things that are not", honoured in order to "nullify the things that are".
Is it simplistic to say that this shows us how much value God places on the things we neglect? It is certainly not the full theological significance of the incarnation. But it is true, and it is something that, today at least, it is worth pausing on, thinking about, and thanking God - all-powerful, truly omnipotent God - for.
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