' ... they will call him "Immanuel" - which means, "God with us." '
'He ... will be called the Son of the Most High.'
' ... the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.'
These words were part of the angel Gabriel's message to Mary when he announced to her the conception and birth of Jesus. They speak of something that seems a ludicrous impossibility: that a human child, born of a human mother, is God.
That the great Creator of this measureless universe, was about to become a human embryo - a creature. That he who is infinite and eternal, was about to become limited by space and time. That he on whom all things depend, and without whom nothing can exist or function, was about to become helpless, dependant, vulnerable.
But as Gabriel said to Mary: 'Nothing is impossible with God.'
This seeming impossibility is the reality of Christmas, a reality expressed and authenticated in the life that this child later lived and the claims that this child later made.
He said: 'I and the Father are one.'
'Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.'
And the Roman soldier, witnessing his death, exclaimed: 'Surely this man was the Son of God.'
HERE, IN THIS CHRISTMAS CHILD, GOD HAS COME TO US.
[Scriptures: Matthew 1:23; Luke 1:26-37; John 1:14,18; 10:30; 14:9; 1 Timothy 3:16; Mark 15:39.]