Danny Fourie

…and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger  Luke 2:7

Mary, who has never been to bed with a man, became pregnant through the Holy Spirit. This is an important fact. A normal human being cannot sire or produce the Saviour. We as human beings can do a lot. Many excellent, powerful and intelligent people are born. Cloning has made it possible that we are capable of producing super human beings (God forbids). But a man and a woman, Mary and Joseph cannot produce from their own “the Saviour”. There God Himself, the Holy Spirit, has to do it. When something new has to happen, in history or with you, the Holy Spirit is always first on the scene.

Jesus was not born in a palace, but in a trough in a stable. No sooner was He born, or His life was threatened by the cruel king Herod. Dozens of innocent little boys were murdered and Jesus escaped by fleeing to Egypt. Is this the Saviour?

It is rather difficult to explain the wonderful fact that God became a man. It is difficult to imagine that the Creator of all things visible can make Himself so small. He became a foetus, a small baby, who lay fragile in the arms of his inexperienced young mother. “…rather, he made himself nothing”, wrote Paul later in Philippians. The Creator became a fertilized egg. The God who holds everything in His power and who throughout the Old Testament exposed His power, suddenly appears in Israel: As a baby who drinks milk from his mother, who has to be cleaned and cries like all other babies use to do.

Prayer: Thank you Creator God that you who are so big were willing to become so small – a baby lying in a trough in a stable. Even though your life started out so odd, you are the Saviour, who also wants to be the King of my life. Help me to accept that. Amen