Jesus entered our world in the lowest, most humble manner possible to identify with humanity at our lowest and most humble (cf. Philippians 2:5–8). He experienced the full gamut of our finitude—he knew hunger, thirst, and exhaustion, and “in every respect has been tempted as we are” (Hebrews 4:15). He then died in the cruelest, most agonizing manner ever devised. Consequently, we can know that Jesus knows all we are going through today. He is praying for us right now (Romans 8:34) with complete understanding of our every issue, problem, and pain. 

Scientists still don’t know why cats purr, why bicycles stay upright when ridden, how animals migrate, or why we sleep. And they speculate as to whether the universe is finite or infinite.

The omniscient Christ of Christmas has no such questions today (cf. John 2:24; 16:30; 21:17).

Speaking of the universe: NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope recently captured stunning images of Uranus along with its numerous rings and fourteen of its twenty-seven moons. The space agency also recently captured images of a solar flare that disrupted radio signals on Earth.

Max Lucado noted that every square yard of the sun is “constantly emitting 130,000 horse power, the equivalent of 450 eight-cylinder car engines.” He added, “Our globe’s weight is estimated at six sextillion tons—that’s a six with twenty-one zeroes!”

The omnipotent Christ of Christmas made all of that (Colossians 1:16).

Then, in a miracle-defying comprehension, he reduced all of his grandeur and glory to become a fetus in the womb of a peasant teenage girl. Then, on the first Christmas day, he was born as a helpless baby into the world he created.

Twenty-one centuries later, we still celebrate that first Christmas. But the longer I live, the less I understand it.

Why did Jesus come the way he did?

We know that Jesus came into the world to die for the world: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). This was always God’s plan: Jesus was “the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world” (Revelation 13:8 NIV).

However, it would seem that the divine Son of God could have entered our world at any age in any way he wished.

Scripture records that “Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age” (Luke 3:23). Why not come to our planet then? We know little about his birth and nothing about his adolescence apart from a single episode when he was twelve years of age (Luke 2:41–51). Why enter the world as a baby?

I understand that his birth fulfilled numerous biblical prophecies.

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