Daily Devotionals
Devotional: December 25th
“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh.”
The mystery is great, not because it is very mysterious but because it is so astounding. The mystery is the amazing truth that God was manifest in the flesh.
It means, for instance, that the Eternal One was born into a world of time. He, the Timeless One, lived in a sphere of calendars and timepieces.
The One who is omnipresent, existing in all places at one and the same time, confined Himself to a single place—like Bethlehem, or Nazareth, Capernaum or Jerusalem.
It is wonderful to think that the Great God, who fills heaven and earth, should compress Himself into a human body. As men looked at Him, they could say accurately, “In Him dwells all the fulness of the godhead bodily.”
The mystery reminds us that the Creator visited this insignificant planet called Earth. It is only a speck of cosmic dust, relative to the rest of the universe, yet He bypassed all the rest to come here. From the palace of heaven to a cattle shed, a stable, a manger!
The omnipotent One became a helpless Baby. It is no exaggeration to say that He whom Mary held in her arms held Mary, for He is the Sustainer as well as the Maker.
The omniscient One is the fountain of all wisdom and knowledge, and yet we read of Him that, as a Child, He increased in wisdom and knowledge. It is almost incredible to think of the Owner of all arriving unwelcome on His own premises. There was no room for Him in the inn. The world knew Him not. His own received Him not.
The Master came into the world as a Servant. The Lord of glory veiled that glory in a body of flesh. The Lord of life came into the world to die. The Holy One came to a jungle of sin. The One who is infinitely high became intimately nigh. The Object of the Father’s delight and of angelic worship hungered and thirsted, was weary at Jacob’s well, slept in a boat on Galilee, wandered “as a homeless stranger in the world His hands had made.” He came from luxury to poverty, with no place to lay His head. He worked as a carpenter. Never slept on a mattress. Never had hot and cold running water, or the other conveniences that we take for granted.
And it was all for you and for me!
O, come, let us adore Him!
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