The Christmas Child “Little one, who straight hast come Down the heavenly stair, Tell us all about your home,
And the father there.” “He is such a one as I, Like as like can be. Do his will, and, by and by, Home and him you’ll see.”
-George MacDonaldin Discovering the Character of God
The Christmas message Emmanuel. God with us. He who resided in Heaven, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father and the Spirit, willingly descended into our world. He breathed our air, felt our pain, knew our sorrows, and died for our sins. He didn’t come to frighten us, but to show us the way to warmth and safety.
-Charles Swindoll in The Finishing Touch
Lord of all The character of the Creator cannot be less than the highest He has created, and the highest is that babe born to Mary on that first Christmas morning.
-A. Ian Burnett in Lord of All Life
From crib to cross Separate Christmas Day from Good Friday, and Christmas is doomed—doomed to decay into a merely sentimental or superstitious or sensuous “eat-drink-and-be-merry” festivity of December. Bethlehem and Golgotha, the Manger and the Cross, the birth and the death, must always be seen together, if the real Christmas is to survive with all its profound inspirations; for “the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister; and to give His life a ransom for many.”
-J. Sidlow Baxter in Awake, My Heart
No offense at Christmas Society never actually wanted the Incarnation. “Emmanuel, God-with-Us” does not sell computer games or cologne. Society wanted the cute stuff—rustic stable, adoring shepherds, fluffy sheep, cows, donkey, holy family, infant Jesus, gift-bearing kings, stars, angels, St. Nicholas, reindeer, fir trees, holly, and presents. The pagan stuff they will retain—even if they do dye the trees powder blue and decorate them with miniature hanging appliances and Disney ornaments . …
The marketplace will also retain some of the traditional hymnody, but in upbeat arrangements that remove them from the realm of traditional worship. Ancient chants are popular, too. They sound religious and profound and—best of all—nobody understands Latin, so no shoppers are offended.
-Maureen Jais-Mick, “Ready or Not: The Return of Christmas” (Cresset, Dec. 1995 )
Beyond comprehension “It seems, then,” said Tirian, smiling himself, “that the Stable seen from within and the Stable seen from without are two different places.”
“Yes,” said the Lord Digory. “Its inside is bigger than its outside.”
“Yes,” said Queen Lucy. “In our world too, a Stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world.”
-C. S. Lewis in The Last Battle (The Chronicles of Narnia)
God’s ultimate weapon When God wanted to defeat sin, his ultimate weapon was the sacrifice of his own Son. On Christmas Day two thousand years ago, the birth of a tiny baby in an obscure village in the Middle East was God’s supreme triumph of good over evil.
-Charles Colson in A Dangerous Grace
God is with usImmanuel, God with us in our nature, in our sorrow, in our lifework, in our punishment, in our grave, and now with us, or rather we with Him, in resurrection, ascension, triumph, and Second Advent splendour.
-C. H. Spurgeon in Morning and Evening
Copyright © 1996 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.
