Who asked God to become a human being anyway? Certainly not those who praise God but still like to keep him in a safe place, away from any interference he might have in their daily lives. Certainly not those who see God’s law as oppressive of their human freedom and who lock him away in nothingness. Surely not those who deem God to be unfair competition in their own desire to be gods, and who therefore want him as far away as possible. Definitely not even those who truly desire to love and serve God and neighbor, but who could not fathom God’s interest in struggling with them in fulfilling this desire. Without being asked by anyone — because who could even have imagined such a thing? — God became man in Jesus Christ our Lord. No one asked him to do this, and some resented it deeply. But a few came to realize, by the unfathomable power of grace, that God took this great initiative because of his great love for us.
Ever since then, we have been struggling to plumb the depths of this great, unimaginable mystery: that the Creator should become a creature; that the eternal Word of God should come as a baby who needed to learn how to speak a human language; that the One who fills the entire universe should close himself up in a Virgin’s womb, should need to be held and fed by her, and should experience the limitations of human nature.
It is not that we did not want God to be with us. Throughout the ages we pleaded with him to wave his magic wand to save us from our troubles. Sometimes he did, and sometimes he did not. Throughout the centuries we railed against him because he seemed so distant when a war devastated our country, when we were the victims of injustice or violence, or when we were overcome by the loss of a loved one. Sometimes he comforted us, and sometimes not. In the long march of time we strove to be like God, only to realize that what we really desired was to actually be god. Sometimes he led us into a covenant with him, and sometimes we refused any such “entrapment.”
Yet despite our own lack of imagination, despite our own self-centered and sinful tendencies, God, without our bidding, became one of us, a flesh-and-blood human person in all things but sin. Every year we celebrate his great coming among us with foods and festivities, with songs and celebrations, with greetings and gifts. We do this because we hope one day to fully understand why God became so intimately entwined in our human condition that he became a human being. We long some day to grasp why he would lower himself to be so lowly, even though no one had asked him to do so. We desire with all our hearts to grasp the pure unrequested and unmerited gift that God has bestowed on us, the gift of Jesus Christ our Savior. The more we are able to understand, to let the light of this great mystery shine upon us, to open our ears and hearts to the beautiful love song that God sings to us, the more we will accept the gift that, even without our asking, God is with us, Emmanuel.
May you keep singing and serving, listening and loving, so that you will not only grasp this great love for yourself but want to witness to Jesus to all you meet. A blessed Christmas to you all!
