Advent | A Family ReflectionSample

God with Us
by Leith Anderson 

The time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger.

Luke 2:6–7

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14). He moved to our world. He was born to one of our women, in one of our stables, in one of our villages, in one of our countries, right here on our earth. 

The Son of God became limited by space. This eternal, powerful Son of God left heaven and became contained in a microscopic human embryo. He had not yet formed eyes or hands or feet or brain. God was contained. God, who is described in John 1 as the light, for nine months was in total darkness. And when he was finally born on Christmas Day, he looked like any other human, maybe seven pounds in weight, unable to feed himself, with eyes slow to focus, hands not quite able to grasp, certainly unable to speak, wearing diapers, totally dependent upon a recently married couple for every necessity of life. And he was the Son of God.

What an incredible journey that he became human for us in order to reach us, in order to communicate to us in our language in our way, in order to save us from sin and death. 

The body that was conceived inside of Mary is the same body that was born on Christmas Day, the same body that grew up in Egypt and in Nazareth. It is the same body that was crucified on the cross, the same body that was laid in the grave, the same body that rose back to life on Easter Sunday morning. It was the same body that ascended up into heaven and is there now. It is the same body that the Bible predicts and Jesus promises will come back to earth again. It is the same body he will wear forever and ever through all of eternity.

The Christmas story is a story of journeys. It is the journey of Mary and Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem. It is the journey of the angels from heaven to earth. It is the journey of the shepherds from the hills and to the village of Bethlehem. But the greatest journey of all is the journey of the Son of God from heaven to earth, from eternity to time, from spirit to body, from deity to humanity. 

Read Luke 2:1–7 alongside Matthew 1:23 and John 1:14. How does the Nativity account shape your view of Christ as Immanuel, “God with us”? 

Leith Anderson served as a senior pastor for 35 years and is president of the National Association of Evangelicals.