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Christianity Today, December, 2007 |

It's a Wonder-Full Life

It takes a special kind of birth to grab the world's attention.

Eugene Peterson | posted 12/21/2007 10:11AM

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So how did it happen that this birth, this Jesus birth, managed to set so many of us back on our heels in astonishment and gratitude and wonder? And continues to do so century after century, at least at this time of year?

The brief answer is that this wasn't just any birth. The baby's parents and first witnesses were convinced that God was entering human history in human form. Their conviction was confirmed in angel and Magi and shepherds' visitations; eventually an extraordinary life came into being before their eyes, right in their neighborhood. More and more people became convinced. Men, women, and children from all over the world continue to be convinced right up to the present moment.

Birth, every human birth, is an occasion for local wonder. In Jesus' birth the wonder is extrapolated across the screen of all creation and all history as a God-birth. "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us"—moved into the neighborhood, so to speak. And for thirty years or so, men and women saw God in speech and action in the entirely human person of Jesus as he was subject, along with them, to the common historical conditions of, as Charles Williams once put it, "Jewish religion, Roman order, and Greek intellect." These were not credulous people and it was not easy for them to believe, but they did. That God was made incarnate as a human baby is still not easy to believe, but people continue to do so. Many, even those who don't "believe," find themselves happy to participate in the giving and receiving, singing and celebrating of those who do.

Incarnation, in-flesh-ment, God in human form in Jesus entering our history: this is what started Christmas. This is what keeps Christmas going.

Eugene Peterson is the author of many books, most recently of The Jesus Way (Eerdmans, 2007). This essay is reprinted from God With Us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas (Paraclete Press, 2007).

Related Elsewhere:

God With Us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas is available from ChristianBook.com and other retailers.

Peterson's other articles on Christmas are in our special section.

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December 2007, Vol. 51, No. 12

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t	Posted: December 30, 2007 5:21 PM

the hypocrit who named himself "the prophet" who supports eugene peterson is no prophet but is an astrologer: A stargazer who is starstruck by the shining-bright peterson. Moosekatt needs a lesson in English, Creative Writing and spirituality, because if he thinks peterson can lump the natural wonder we have for creatures next to Moses' experience of God and then expect us to treat the two as equally profound, then he is a little strange. Peterson is sincere but sincerely wrong when he tries to spiritualize the trivial and treat as trivial the deeply spiritual. Peterson in his attempt at winning audiences has put on a mask that attracts people's attention but he feeds them nothing but Greek tragedy or belly laughs for food. He has no depth. That lack of depth is shown how he writes trivia as if it is marvelous and then treats marvelous things like Moses and his burning bush experience as if Moses was seeing a hawk fly by.No sir, you do not understand the importance of writing for depth

Moosekatt

Posted: December 28, 2007 4:26 PM


Mr. Peterson is no fool. And when he says things like, "We take off our sandals before the burning bush." He is speaking illustratively. I doubt very seriously he means such things in a strict literal sense. Maybe we need some basic English and Creative Writing classes in our Sunday school rooms nowadays...

a prophet

Posted: December 27, 2007 10:01 AM


boy o boy i am so glad i am not drinking from the poison that those critics of Eugene Petterson are drinking from. Please examine yourself now the flesh is running rampant, how can anyone live with you?

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