December seems to alway remind me of my human limits. Sickness or job loss or depression or grief or boring old exhaustion … it finds our family like it does many.
Despite these things, I’m supposed to make the Christmas season “magical” for my family.
Each year it hits me in a slightly different way: God humbled himself to become human.
“Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death — even to death on a cross. ”
Philippians 2:5-8 CSB
These verses have felt a bit like an added expectation to the already difficult task of just being human and making Christmas “magical.”
Hannah Anderson offers a different perspective (one that feels especially applicable at Christmas) in her book Humble Roots:
“We are not called to embody Jesus ourselves; He has already been incarnated and is still even now! No, we are not called to be Jesus; we are called to fall at His feet and worship Him.”
God tells us our place and role in the story of redemption:
“For this reason God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow — in heaven and on earth and under the earth — and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Philippians 2:9-11 CSB
My place is with bent knees before Jesus?
My lip quivers as I sigh in relief: God knows I am human and not at all divine.
Jesus “has already been incarnated.” The magic I muster this Christmas doesn’t compare to this miracle.
I find myself on my knees.
The Worth Of Knowing 
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