The Birth of Jesus and the Meaning of Christmas

Hello, and Merry Christmas.

If you are reading this on Christmas Eve, or even Christmas morning, I hope this finds you in a quiet moment where you are seeking to truly celebrate the meaning of Christmas and the birth of Jesus Christ.

Christmas is a wonderful time of year, but it can also be a difficult one. For many, it brings loneliness, the resurfacing of old wounds, seasonal depression, or grief over a family life that doesn’t look the way we once imagined it would. Joy and sorrow often sit side by side during this season.

My hope is that you would take a few moments to be encouraged—not simply by the image of a baby in a manger, but by who Jesus truly is, and by the deep and steady truth that there is no place so low that Jesus will not enter in.

The Birth of Jesus Reveals His Eternal Power and Glory

Before we look at the humility of Jesus—His birth, His life, and His death—it is important to reflect on His glory and greatness. This helps us to truly grasp how low He chose to descend.

Colossians 1:15–16 tells us:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him.

Here we see who Christ is. We see His power, His authority, and the reason all of creation exists: for Him.

Jesus is not merely a gentle teacher or a moral example. He is the eternal Son of God—the One through whom all things were made and the One for whom all things exist. Christmas does not begin with vulnerability; it begins with divine glory.

Why Jesus Came Into the World: God’s Purpose in Sending His Son

Yet the world was not only created through Him—it was created for Him, in a deeply relational way.

We were not made for God in the way a producer creates a play and steps back to observe it. Rather, we were created to know Him and to be known by Him, to behold His glory and reflect it.

Remember how In the beginning, God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden, and we also remember the tragedy of the fall that fractured that relationship through sin.

Jesus entered into our world with a clear and personal mission: to reconcile us back to God.

Colossians 1:19–20 says:

For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross.

Jesus did not create the world and then keep His distance. Instead he came near to us in flesh and blood; He came personally with the mission to restore mankind back to God.

The Love of God Displayed in the Birth of Jesus Christ

During His earthly ministry, Jesus pointed to the Father’s careful attention to even the smallest details of creation. In Matthew 10, He reminds us that not even a sparrow—small, inexpensive, and easily overlooked—falls to the ground apart from the Father’s knowledge. Nothing in creation is unseen by God.

But Jesus presses the point further: even the hairs of your head are all numbered. His conclusion is unmistakable—you are of more value than many sparrows (Matthew 10:29–31). God’s care is not distant or general, but personal and precise. If He attends to creatures of such little worth in human eyes, how much more does He attend to those made in His image?

And we do not have to wonder why God sent Jesus into the world. Scripture tells us plainly: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son” (John 3:16). The birth of Jesus is not the story of a distant God observing from afar, but of a God who came near because humanity is deeply loved and greatly valued.

From the Manger to the Cross: The Humility of Jesus Throughout His Life

When Jesus came into our world, He did not arrive as a distant observer or as something altogether unlike us. Instead, He came as one of us.

Rather than merely creating humanity or briefly visiting it, He entered the world in the most personal and accessible way possible—born as a man. Taking on flesh, He could be touched, spoken to, known, and loved: flesh that could heal, wipe tears, confront lies, and bear suffering.

Philippians 2:6–8 tells us:

Though He was in the form of God, He did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Jesus already took on the lowest position imaginable in order to serve humanity. There is no position more humble than that of a baby—born to a young woman of no status, in a small farming town, under the rule of Roman overlords, shut out from an inn and laid in a feeding trough.

For anyone, this would be a position of helplessness and vulnerability. Yet when we remember the height of Christ’s glory, we marvel at how far He chose to descend.

And His descent did not stop at His birth.

All of Jesus’ life on earth was lived as a pouring out—as a continual lowering of Himself. He lived in perfect submission to the Father, constantly surrendering any claim to be exalted by man. He welcomed the poor, the outcast, the sinner, the ashamed. He touched the unclean. He ate with those others avoided. He refused to elevate Himself, even when crowds tried to make Him king.

The lowest point of this descent came at the cross.

Again, Philippians tells us that He “humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” There was no deeper humiliation, no darker place, no greater burden of shame than what Jesus willingly bore there.

What Christmas Means for Our Suffering, Sin, and Darkness Today

The implications of this are endless, but I want to focus on one aspect in particular: Jesus Christ meets us in our greatest struggles.

Sometimes a trial comes along that changes everything. A moment that divides life into before and after.

A diagnosis.
A car crash.
The shock of sudden death.
Divorce.
Abuse.
The discovery of a shameful secret.
A child’s rebellion.
Or a friend’s shocking sin against you.

Beyond that there are the quieter, daily trials. These include the loneliness of motherhood, the exhaustion of caring for aging parents, fear about health or the future, tension in a marriage, a teenager’s anxiety, financial strain, or simply feeling worn down by the weight of responsibility.

We also face long, ongoing battles with sin—within ourselves, our marriages, our children, and sometimes even within the church. The discouragement of facing the same failures, repenting again and again, and still falling short can be utterly exhausting.

There are moments when we begin to wonder whether even God has grown weary of our situation. Is it too complicated, too entrenched, too dark for Him to enter into?

But Scripture tells us otherwise.

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6)

The light in the darkness is found in Jesus Christ—and in Him alone.

If we find ourselves wondering whether our situation is too low or too dark for Christ to enter into, we must remember this: He already has.

Jesus came and said “yes” to entering humanity’s deepest darkness. He bore its full weight. What makes us think He would now turn away from us?

He could not be too ashamed of us, when He already took our shame.
He could not be too repulsed by our sin, when He willingly paid for it.

The same Jesus who descended into our world meets us still—not with disdain, but with compassion, power, and readiness to help.

Looking Beyond the Birth of Jesus This Christmas to the Whole Christ

As you celebrate Christmas, look not only at Jesus’ birth for evidence of His humility and love, but also at His life. Look at the way He welcomed every kind of sinner. Look at how He never refused anyone who came to Him seeking mercy.

Follow Him all the way to the cross, where He was willing to forgive even those who were crucifying Him.

You cannot say that Jesus would refuse you help. He has done everything necessary to make peace with you, to call you His friend, and to draw you near.

If you wonder how God looks upon you in your lowest moments, Psalm 103 answers tenderly:

The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love…
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities…
As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear Him.
For He knows our frame;
He remembers that we are dust.

This Christmas, may you remember that the God who came low enough to enter a stable is the same God who comes low enough to enter your pain.

And He comes not with condemnation—but with compassion, mercy, and steadfast love.