At Christmas we celebrate the fact that God wrapped Himself in human skin and stepped into time. He
wasn’t on vacation or trying out a new way of relating to His creation. He was here on a mission. Jesus’
purpose in coming was to redeem us. In order for that to happen, He, God, had to come, live here like
us, be tempted and stay completely clean unlike us, willingly suffer and be killed, willingly as a sacrifice
for our sins. That’s the miracle. Jesus came, He lived, breathed, taught, prayed…and died. And then the
second miracle: He rose again. There are tons of other incredible stories connected to this, like blind
men seeing and paralyzed men walking; demons being cast out and water turning into wine. But these
stories are all connected to the main fact of God being with us. It seems like the things I just described
happen everywhere God goes. They happen just because He’s in the room!

We spend far too much time focusing on the results of God’s presence and far too little time focusing on
His presence at all. The reason He’s here is not to do a bunch of miracles. The reason Jesus came is to
redeem us; to purchase us back in spite of our sin from the One who holds the keys to the Kingdom to
begin with. Let me say that again. The second miracle of God with us is that God sent Jesus to act in our
stead; to atone for our sin that offended God in the first place.

That begs the question, is Satan in the picture at all? And the answer is, absolutely. He’s the Liar, the
Thief, the Destroyer, and the Tempter. He is the one working to keep us distracted long enough that we
never respond to God’s open invitation to come to Him. And Satan does his job well. That said, Jesus did
not buy us back from Satan. Not in any way did Satan ever own any human. God created us. He will
always hold the rights to our lives. Our own rebellion separated us from God. Instead of handing us over
to Satan, God made a way for us to come back to Him through Jesus. One writer I read said, “When
Jesus approaches a demon possessed man, you never hear the demons say, “Did you bring the money?”
No way! They always fall on their face saying, “What do you want with us, Jesus Son of the Most High
God!”” In no way was it necessary for God to buy us back from the enemy. In every way the necessity
rested on God dealing with our sin so that we could be with Him as He’s always intended.

So, miracle #1: Jesus is born. Miracle #2: Jesus willingly dies for us, is raised, defeating sin and death
once and for all. What did that mean for Mary and Joseph? It meant the 400+ year silence was broken
and, according to Daniel, the time had finally come for God to redeem His people. It meant Mary was
carrying God in her uterus. It meant Joseph would get to teach God how to use a chisel and a saw. It
meant that their children would have to learn to live with a sinless brother. That meant Jesus would
never taunt them, hurt them, gossip about them, or abandon them. He would only ever treat His family
as God would treat them. Wow! It meant they would be embarrassed when Jesus broke the social
norms and referred to Himself as God (over and over). It meant their hearts would be broken when the
system they loved and cherished turned on their son and killed him. It meant they would understand a
lot of things He’d do and say, but in the end, they’d love and trust Him still. It meant that Mary, Joseph
and the rest of their family would eventually have to trust their Son and brother to save them from their
sin against God. What a beautiful and awesome paradox it must have been to grow up in a home with
Jesus!

Not a single one of us will ever get that experience. Jesus has only one birthday. His work on the cross
for us is done. He never has to face that again. He didn’t leave anything out. That means the world only
gets one chance to witness the skies open up with the sound of angel voices. That means Bethlehem is
the only town in the world privileged enough to witness the birth of the Messiah. That means shepherds
will always be the first ones to be barn to worship the King. And that is the way it should be. Merry
CHRISTmas!