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| Thursday, December 13, 2007
What Christmas Means to Me Writer : Chu QiaoQuestion: what is the greatest humiliation of Christmas? a) That Christ was born in a manger b) That Christ was born of a woman c) That Christ was even born at all When Christmas comes to mind, many will think of turkey ham, log cakes and Christmas trees. Many more will think of Santa Claus, snow and presents. If this word association goes on a little longer, some will eventually mention the birth of Christ. Yet seldom will any of us think about the humiliation of God in being incarnated as a mere babe in all the frailty of this mortal coil. Dorothy Sayers once wrote that Christ has three humiliations, two of which are the Incarnation and the Crucifixion. And the last? It is the Church. Let us now consider what He has suffered for the sake of His last humiliation. I have always been fascinated by the theological undertones of time and space travel science fiction. After I came to the faith in my late teens, the phrase 'He descended in all His glory' took on a whole new meaning when I re-read tales of extra-terrestrial life and their visitations to earth. Instead of the ominous 'Take me to your leader' threat, I now have a leader who has crossed time and space to take me back home. More than 2,000 years ago, our Maker who loves us very much decided to suffer humiliation and emptied His vessel, to be born as a child to redeem mankind and prepare the Church, his bride. Despite knowing fully well that the object of His redemption will be a humiliation unto Him till the end of this world, He still persists in making this journey to us, so that we may forever return to Him. In being born, Christ has effectively consented to suffer all three humiliations for the sake of our redemption. This is the spirit of Christmas. In our lifetime, none of us ever deserves love, yet many of us will go on to experience it before we die. Can we truly understand that? A Christmas devotion written for The Christmas Issue Dec 2007
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