22nd December 2025

Christmas is a busy time, and it seems to start earlier every year. Stores put out decorations and gifts in October, and every organisation has a hand out for donations, wanting to take advantage of ‘good will toward men’. The trappings of this holiday are everywhere and before you know it, you can be knee-deep in the preparations, gift buying, baking and of course, parties. We try to remind ourselves of the real meaning, but it tends to get buried under wrapping paper and tangled lights. 

The real meaning of Christmas is the amazing reality that the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes was God himself. What’s even more amazing is that Jesus, who existed in the form of God, ‘emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant’ (Philippians 2:7, CSB). Perhaps Philippians 2:5-11 isn’t the typical passage read at this time of year, but maybe it should be. Yes, the baby was the sign given to humanity to signify the birth of the Saviour, but he was also the sign of who God is. 

Incredibly, the Creator of the universe reduced himself to a microscopic group of cells, which grew into a zygote, which developed into an embryo, which then grew into a fetus. Many today might say he wasn’t human in that form, but when Elizabeth saw Mary, who was about three months into her pregnancy, the baby inside her leaped for joy. Jesus was the Son of God, the Messiah, Emmanuel, from the womb. 

This is the meaning of Christmas – that the Almighty God, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, became one of us, with a tiny, nondescript beginning. The Great I AM became incarnate for us. He became a servant to us and later was obedient to death on a cross for us so we can live. What a magnificent, and yet humble, Saviour. May we all worship him with awestruck wonder and effusive joy.

First published on 17 December 2024, at www.gemsofgodsgrace.wordpress.com a personal blog which is not sponsored by Grace Communion International.

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