Christmas Eve

Tonight is about the wonder of God’s love.

Wonder is an interesting thing.

Wonder is being astonished at something awesomely mysterious.

When Melanie and I lived out in Colorado, we took a road trip to the Grand Canyon. If you’ve never been, your friends are not lying - no picture can capture the immensity of that sight. There’s a reason you don’t lose yourself in a picture of the Grand Canyon, but when you’re actually there…you can spend hours staring into the great expanse. You just don’t want to look away.

The same can be said of a newborn baby. It’s always cute and sweet to see pictures of someone elses’ newborn baby, but when it’s your own newborn son or daughter, you can spend hours just watching them sleep. You just don’t want to look away.

That’s what wonder is - being astonished at something awesomely mysterious.

I’m not normally affected or moved by paintings, but when I saw the famous work by Picasso, Guernica, his powerful painting about the tragedy of war in the aftermath of the Nazi bombing of the Spanish town of Guernica. The painting is eleven feet tall and twenty five feet wide, and it sits all by itself in a quiet viewing room. I remember sitting before that painting for a long, long time in a deep silence, filled with wonder. I just didn’t want to look away.

We all crave wonder. Why do we hike up mountains? It’s rarely for the journey or the constant switch backs. Heck, I’m an asthmatic, so I’m not doing it for the joy of wheezing. Why do we climb mountains? We want to see something truly wondrous at the top. We want to get a glimpse at something awesomely mysterious. And when we reach the top, we often don’t want to look away.

We all crave wonder. We crave the astonishment of being in the presence of something awesomely mysterious.

Well this is your lucky day all you wonder-seekers. Because tonight we gaze upon the greatest and most awesome mystery ever to be known on the earth. The mystery that the God of the Universe is born a child - fully human, fully God.

And in the same way I can’t explain the wonder of the Grand Canyon or a newborn son or a profound work of art - I can’t explain the wonder of the Incarnation except to tell you that the more that you look upon this Jesus, the more you’ll find you don’t want to look away.

Because when we look deeply at this child, this Jesus, this Son of God - we see the wonder of God’s love for us.

The angels announced not simply that Christ is born, but that Christ is born to you. The wonder of God’s love is that Christ has come to you - to save, redeem, and rescue you.

Yet the

Tonight we look deeply at this child, and the more we look, the more we won’t want to turn away - for in Christ we see the wonder of God’s love.

Let us take

There is no greater or more awesome a mystery than the truth that our God is with us, that Jesus has come.

So let be that the wonder of God’s love for us

There is no greater mystery in all the world than this. And oh it is a stumbling block for so many, because it really does sound ridiculous.

Why on earth would the God of the Universe humiliate himself by becoming human? Why would the Ancient of Days who exists in perfect satisfaction enter into our mess of a world - why would he take on weariness, hunger, thirst, and pain? Why would the Omnipotent One take on such limitations?

Surely he would have to have a good reason.

For this He assumed my body, that I may become capable of His Word; taking my flesh, He gives me His spirit; and so He bestowing and I receiving, He prepares for me the treasure of Life. He takes my flesh, to sanctify me; He gives me His Spirit that He may save me.

We’ve all seen wonder