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Carolyn and I enjoyed an early Thanksgiving dinner with family this past Sunday before heading to the mountains to celebrate Thanksgiving Day by decorating our cabin as we anticipate the beginning of Advent.

I believe the greatest miracle of all time was Jesus’ birth: God Almighty willingly choosing to become God incarnate, God in the flesh. The Lord of the Universe, as a vulnerable babe, entered into the struggles of humankind at a tumultuous time and in a nondescript place. The God of heaven “made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (Philippians 2:7), and in so doing chose willingly to humble himself as a “down-to-earth” God.

Frankly, if God had chosen to be just “Our Father who art in heaven,” if we had never experienced God with skin on in the person of Jesus, then God might always have remained an ethereal concept. Encountering a God who looks and acts like Jesus is an entirely different proposition. In Jesus, we have the picture of a God who intentionally positions himself as a mere servant, identifying with the lowest of lows, the least, and the lost. As the Son of God, Jesus is the antithesis of the spoiled, prideful and cruelly powerful prince of Greek mythology or fairy-tale lore who willfully acts on personal whims for selfish gain. Instead Jesus, the down-to-earth God, demonstrates in the flesh and to the full the love, humility, obedience and sacrificial lifestyle that we as Jesus’ followers are in turn called to live out and embrace.

Christmas each year is the best reminder I know that God loved us so much that he willingly emptied himself of all divine rights and privileges, sacrificing everything so that we as God’s children might have everything.

Many of us right now may be struggling to feel any sense of Advent anticipation. Perhaps this Advent you have just gone through the pain of divorce. You may be experiencing the devastating effects of betrayal and broken trust. You could be in the midst of a transition in employment because of company downsizing. Maybe the doctor has informed you about the result of a biopsy, and it has sabotaged your hope and shredded your faith.

Take heart! Immanuel, God with us, is about to birth a new thing in you and through you. As the Prophet Isaiah declared, God is “making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland” (Isaiah 43:19).

Mike Slaughter, pastor emeritus and global church ambassador for Ginghamsburg Church, served for nearly four decades as the lead pastor and chief dreamer of Ginghamsburg and the spiritual entrepreneur of ministry marketplace innovations. Mike is also the founder and chief strategist of Passionate Churches, LLC, which specializes in developing pastors, church staff and church lay leaders through coaching, training, consulting and facilitation services. Mike’s call to “afflict the comfortable” challenges Christians to wrestle with God and their God-destinies. Mike’s latest book Revolutionary Kingdom: following the Rebel Jesus is available on Amazon and Cokesbury. 

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