An Ordinary Night

 'Tis the season! I love Christmas, from the snowy fields and trees to the lights on the houses. I love singing old hymns about that precious night and I love being with my family. But most of all, I love being reminded of the great, deep love of the Father in sending His Son to Earth for me, for you.

My favorite Christmas song is “O Holy Night”. It was just an ordinary night for everyone else, from the innkeeper to the shepherds in the field. But this was no ordinary night, it was a holy night, a night divine. This was the night that God HIMSELF would come to His own people in the most humble way possible.

“Mountains would have bowed down. Seas would have roared. Trees would have clapped their hands. But the earth held its breath. As silent as snow falling, He came in. And when no one was looking, in the darkness, He came” (The Jesus Storybook Bible, 176).

Jesus, the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, would choose to come to be born amongst the barn animals. He wouldn't come in shades of purple to signify royalty or trumpets blaring, but He would come in the secret of the night. “How Many Kings” by Downhere depicts this beautifully; take a listen:

This King, Messiah, Savior, was promised in the third chapter of Genesis. It didn't take Adam and Eve long to disobey God. However, the second they did, He promised One would come to redeem them – to buy them back and obey the doors to Eden once again for communion with the Father.

The people of Israel thought He would come as a King. “Though He was Mighty God, He has become a helpless baby. This King hadn't come to be the boss. He had come to be a servant” (The Jesus Storybook Bible, 198). Boy, were they ever wrong! But I think sometimes we forget this humility as well. In Luke 3 it lists the genealogy of Christ: from Joseph, His step-father listed in verse 23, all the way to verse 38, “the son of Enos, the Son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.” Jesus came as a man. He didn't just look like a baby, He was a baby. He came to know our temptations and weaknesses, to know our joy and to know our hurt. It's in that humility that Christ meets us still today. He was and is fully God, but the God who placed the stars in the sky dwelt among us (John 1:14) and He knows.

This Baby, this Man, this King was sent to Earth with a purpose: to buy us back. He came to tear the veil that stood between the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man. It was just an ordinary night, but it was certainly a holy night, a night divine. That night would change the course of history – HIS-story – forever. And the story is not over yet.