Grandness

and humility. Glory and simplicity. That's what the true

Christmas Story is all about. God's grandness and our

humility. Divine glory and human simplicity.

Think about

the story and its contrasts. Here is a decree from an

emperor alongside a simple man from Nazareth, with his

wife-to-be, obeying its demands. Here is a direct shoot

from the family tree of the great King David alongside

the reality of no room in the inn.

Here are

heavenly angels bringing the first announcement of the

birth of the divine child, but to meager shepherds,

keeping lonely watch on a cold and desolate hillside.

Here is the proclamation of the Savior, Christ the King,

and yet here is only a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes,

lying in a manger.

Here are

wise men following a glorious star and ending up in only

a humble stable. Here is the "Savior from God"

held and nursed by his young unwed mother in a homeless

shelter for refugees.

What a

story! And what preposterous faith it proclaims! Could

anything be more unlikely? But this is precisely what the

gospel says - The glory of the eternal and almighty

God is unveiled in this simple child and these simple

surroundings.

Grandness

and humility. Glory and simplicity.

And here's

the clincher. This paradoxical contrast between grandness

and humility, between glory and simplicity, is not only

the way to understand the ancient Christmas story. It is

also the precise truth about our lives right here and

right now.

What

happened in history on that first Christmas night so long

ago continuously happens to us over and over again. God

constantly appears with his grandness even in the midst

of our most humble circumstances. God continually shows

up with his glory in the midst of our most simple

day-to-day routines.

It happens

when He is in the middle of our marriages and families

and all our human relationships. It happens in our

moments of quiet devotion, meditation and prayer. It

happens when we are His Church gathered for worship,

communion, fellowship, and service to His world.

Sometimes

it's easy to get these wrong, to get these mixed up.

Sometimes we try to make it our grandness and His

humility, our glory and His simplicity. What a mistake!

And our lives usually look and feel pretty awful at these

times.

That's why

it's so good to return to the manger, to return to the

story, to return to the truth. That's why Christmas is so

important, and that's why it's so important to see

Christmas for what it actually is: God gloriously coming

to rescue His humble world from sin.

It's so

humbly grand!

It's so

gloriously simple!

So, one

more time: "Merry Christmas!" And all God's

people say, "Amen!"

Kollmeyer

is senior pastor of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in

Fayetteville.