“If you have any encouragement from your union with Christ, and any comfort from his love…” (then) “your relationships with each other should be shaped by the same attitude which is yours in Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped tightly, and used for his own advantage.
Rather, he (Jesus) made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (Phil. 2:1, 5-11)
Lord Jesus, in the Apostle Paul’s account of your birth, there’s no angelic fanfare, scurrying shepherds, or “little town of Bethlehem.” There’s “just” you—in the humility of your incarnation, the grace of your servanthood, and the unparalleled encouragement of the Gospel.
Though you never ceased being God, you truly became man. What holy, breathtaking, life-giving good news. Jesus, you are the emphatic “Yes” to every promise God has made (2 Cor. 1:20).
You, the Creator and Sustainer of all things, cried your first tears and took your first breath in a meager manger. You came from the glories of heaven to robe us with your perfect righteousness. But first, you were wrapped in the swaddling clothes of your poor middle-eastern family. Jesus, though you are the giver of Living Water, you depended on Mary’s breast milk for life… knowing she, in time, would depend on your death for eternal life.
Jesus, how then shall we live and love? In the encouragement of the Gospel and the comfort of your love—not grasping, but giving; not resenting, but forgiving; not in fear, but by faith “expressing itself in love.” So Very Amen.