The Most Holy Moment of All
And the angel told Joseph, “The child within [Mary] was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1:20-21 (NLT)
The birth of a child is a holy moment. As the word holy suggests, it’s a sacred event, set apart from all other moments. Any mother can testify to the hallowed wonder of holding her newborn the first time.
But of the billions of births since time began, the birth of Jesus was the most holy moment of all—the eternal God took on human form so He could live among us as one of us (John 1:14).
As surely as the adjective holy describes the birth of the only begotten Son of God, so does the adjective lowly. The word refers both to the attribute of humility, as in lacking pride, and to the impoverished socioeconomic status of the lowborn. Jesus, the Son of Man, was lowly. Philippians 2:6-8 reminds us that he humbled himself in obedience to his Father’s will—”even death on a cross” (NIV). And Jesus entered our world as the child of an uneducated teenager who was married to a peasant carpenter from a third-rate village in an enemy-occupied nation.
Infant holy, infant lowly,
For his bed a cattle stall;
Oxen lowing, little knowing
Christ the babe is Lord of all.
Swift are winging angels singing,
Noels ringing, tidings bringing:
Christ the babe is Lord of all!
Christ the babe is Lord of all!
How beautifully the lyrics of this Polish folk tune capture the wonder of who Jesus is—born in a cattle stall yet Lord of all, laid in a manger yet serenaded by the angelic hosts of heaven.
Consider the wondrous aspects of the Christmas story. Its plot is so simple: the birth of a baby. But that holy, lowly birth changed the course of human history because Christ the babe was born to redeem us (Titus 2:14; Ephesians 1:7-8). This is the essence of the “gospel true,” first proclaimed to the shepherds: Christ was born for me and for you.
Flocks were sleeping; shepherds keeping
Vigil till the morning new
Saw the glory, heard the story,
Tidings of the gospel true.
Thus rejoicing, free from sorrow,
Praises voicing greet the morrow:
Christ the babe was born for you!
Christ the babe was born for you!
I pray that the profound, sacred wonder of Christmas will never become mundane for me, that I’ll always kneel beside the manger in awe.
How about you? What can you do this year to ensure that Christ’s birth remains a holy celebration for you and your family?
DIG DEEPER:
Read Luke 2:1-20 this week. Ask God to awaken a fresh wonder for the Christmas story in your heart. What details stand out that you may have previously overlooked?
Contrast the image of Jesus given in Hebrews 1:3-12 with the one given in Isaiah 53:2-9. How do these passages illustrate His uniqueness?
Read Jesus’s description of Himself as the Good Shepherd in John 10:11-18. How does this self-portrait capture both His holiness and lowliness?
The English paraphrase of this two-stanza lullaby can be found at Hymnary.org. (Edith M. G. Reed published this paraphrase in 1921.)
Denise K. Loock
Note: If you like this devotion, please check out Denise’s devotional collections: Open Your Hymnal and Open Your Hymnal Again