Day 1

For to us a child is born, 
    to us a son is given; 
and the government shall be upon his shoulder, 
    and his name shall be called 
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, 
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 
7 Of the increase of his government and of peace 
    there will be no end, 
on the throne of David and over his kingdom, 
    to establish it and to uphold it 
with justice and with righteousness 
    from this time forth and forevermore. 
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. 

Isaiah 9: 6-7 (ESV) 

The book of Isaiah was written roughly 700 years before the birth of Christ. The passage above is just one of the many messianic prophecies tucked away throughout the pages of the Old Testament. Although most of the writers of these prophecies only understood in part what they were really writing of, it’s difficult for us today to read verses like these and think that they could be talking about anyone or anything other than Christ. The names and titles given to this prophesied child are wonderful, indeed, but can you imagine hearing all of this back then? A child will be born, a boy, and he will lead our government. Ok. We can follow that. This is probably a child who will be in the line of kings, a future prince who would one day become king, perhaps. “Lovely.” Wonderful Counselor. “Great!” Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace! “Wait, what was that?” Prince of Peace? “No. I mean that sounds nice, but before that.” Everlasting Father? “I mean, that’s potentially problematic, we’ll come back to that, but before.” Mighty God. “Yeah, that’s the one. How can God be born? It makes no sense!” 

“Oh, how can it be? The birth of the Creator. King of everything. First breath of the breath of life.” 

Holy Mystery, I Am The Pendragon 

Dr. William Lane Craig, a prominent Christian apologist, teaches that in order to be the Creator of the universe, God must be “beginningless, changeless, immaterial, timeless, spaceless, and enormously powerful.” How can the beginningless be born? How can the changeless condescend? How can the immaterial become matter? How can the timeless enter time? How can the spaceless be contained in the body of an infant? How can the enormously powerful be a helpless baby? These seeming contradictions all perfectly coexist within the person of Jesus. These impossibilities are only possible if He truly is God. He has to be God! 

In light of the chaos in our world today, most of us would gladly accept Him as Prince of Peace. Probably fewer but I would still bet a good number of us would even be willing to vote Him in and place the government on His shoulders (as if it was ours to bestow.) One of the true social pandemics of our age is fatherlessness, and there are countless abandoned children who would gladly accept Him as the Eternal Father who will never leave. But God? 

God? 

My friends, unless He is God, He can be none of the other things. It’s more than a package deal, acknowledging His deity is the cost of admission – you can’t enter in without believing that! 

As you drive by the nativity scenes in your neighborhood, when you see the tiny baby in the manger, remember, “This is how God chose to enter the world that He created.” It’s probably not how you would have done it if you were Him. It’s definitely not the way I would have made my grand entrance, but we are not God. He is. And thank God that He does not do things the way we would. It won’t always make sense to us, but it is, in the end, always good. We can’t always see the end from the beginning; how He will work all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28), but He does it. This is just the beginning of understanding the Holy Mystery that is our God.

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