ADVENT: MIGHTY GOD

DEVOTION

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. - Isaiah 9:6

I have a collection of Nativities, curated through the years, which I display during Advent. I used nativities as a way to explain the birth of Jesus to my kids when they were younger. I would bring out Mary and the angel, then talk about his revelation that she would be a special mom like no one else: she would give birth to Jesus. Then Joseph would come out, and I explained that he was visited by the angel who told him to take Mary as his wife and that they would be the earthly parents to the Savior. The donkey came on to the scene to take Mary and Joseph on a journey to Bethlehem, and Mary had to have her baby in a stable because they weren’t welcomed into the family homes, and there was no other place they could go. Then baby Jesus, an ordinary looking baby, would be placed in the manger.

I would hold up the angel and the shepherd and explain that God chose shepherds to hear the incredible news of the long-awaited Messiah. I told them shepherds weren’t considered important or powerful in the kingdom. Then we’d place the shepherd and sheep close to the manger. We talked about how three kings from different lands watched for the sign from God that the Savior was born, how they traveled close to two years to be able to see him in person, and how they brought gifts for him.

All of this made sense to them. They didn’t question any of the story. Their trusting innocence left doubt and cynicism out of the picture. They could even understand that God sent Jesus to us. The part of the story, though, that was challenging to explain, or to be honest, for me to completely grasp, was that the baby laying in the manger … was God. Already. How could this little baby be … God? Why was that so hard for me to understand?

It finally dawned on me that my preconceived ideas of what God must look like, and must be like, affected how I thought of Jesus. My God was so distant. In my mind, God was too holy to be in a trough full of hay; he was too powerful to be a helpless baby. He was creator and sustainer and ruled the heavens; he couldn’t be contained in one place by flesh and blood and bones—but that’s the whole point. Jesus is all of those things. He is powerful and mighty. He is a conquering king, a hero, a warrior. He is holy, divine, and fully God. Yet he bowed low and came to earth in the form of a tiny baby … and all at once, Mighty God became fully human, accessible, relatable, touchable, a helpless infant, Jesus, Son of God, Immanuel—God with us.

Cindy Western

Pastor of Small Group Development & Resources

cwestern@crossings.church

REFLECTION

What are some of the attributes of God that are hard to assign to Jesus, the baby in the manger?

How does picturing Jesus as Mighty God, the fullness of God as human, shape your faith in him today?

This season, when you see Jesus portrayed as a baby on greeting cards, social media banners and memes, nativities, etc., worship him for coming to us as a baby, but also as King Jesus, Mighty God..

PRAYER

Mighty God,

Thank you for giving up the comfort of heaven and coming to us as a helpless baby. How you can be human and God at once is such a mystery, but my faith is big enough to believe in the mystery. Even as a baby, you were God Almighty—this isn’t something you grew into, you brought it with you. Give me strength that stirs me to move from faith to trust and from trust to action.

ADVENT READING PLAN