"It's a Wonderful-Full Life" (Eugene Peterson writes beautifully about the Savior's Birth!)

It's a Wonder-Full Life
It takes a special kind of birth to grab the world's attention.

Eugene Peterson posted 12/21/2007 10:11AM. 2 of 2, ...For full article visit: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/december/28.34.html?start=1

So how did it happen that this birth, this Jesus birth, managed to set so many of us back on our heels in astonishment and gratitude and wonder? And continues to do so century after century, at least at this time of year?

The brief answer is that this wasn't just any birth. The baby's parents and first witnesses were convinced that God was entering human history in human form. Their conviction was confirmed in angel and Magi and shepherds' visitations; eventually an extraordinary life came into being before their eyes, right in their neighborhood. More and more people became convinced. Men, women, and children from all over the world continue to be convinced right up to the present moment.

Birth, every human birth, is an occasion for local wonder. In Jesus' birth the wonder is extrapolated across the screen of all creation and all history as a God-birth. "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us"—moved into the neighborhood, so to speak. And for thirty years or so, men and women saw God in speech and action in the entirely human person of Jesus as he was subject, along with them, to the common historical conditions of, as Charles Williams once put it, "Jewish religion, Roman order, and Greek intellect." These were not credulous people and it was not easy for them to believe, but they did. That God was made incarnate as a human baby is still not easy to believe, but people continue to do so. Many, even those who don't "believe," find themselves happy to participate in the giving and receiving, singing and celebrating of those who do.

Incarnation, in-flesh-ment, God in human form in Jesus entering our history: this is what started Christmas. This is what keeps Christmas going.

Eugene Peterson is the author of many books, most recently of The Jesus Way (Eerdmans, 2007). This essay is reprinted from God With Us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas (Paraclete Press, 2007).
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Peterson's other articles on Christmas are in our special section: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/special/adventandchristmas.html