Luke 2:8-21 & Hebrews 10:5-7

Joseph Damien was a Belgian priest who went in 1873 to minister to leopards on the land of Molokai, Hawaii. As soon as he arrived, he began trying to build friendships with the residence of the leprechaun colony but they rejected him. He poured himself into this ministry, building a small chapel and holding worship services. But hardly anyone came. 

After 12 long hard years he was about to give up. While standing on the pier about to border ship that would take him back to Belgium, he looked down at his hands. The white spots he saw could me and only one thing. He had contracted leprosy. 

So instead of going home, he returned to his work in the leper colony. The news of his disease spread throughout the community within hours. 

The following Sunday when he arrived at the chapel, the small building was filled to overflowing. He had always started his sermon with the words my fellow believers. But this morning he began my fellow lepers. Those three words express the ultimate sacrifice and love of a man not only willing to live among the outcast but also to become like them. 

The wonder of Jesus is coming into our world is that He knew all it would mean and yet He still chose to come. His birth meant becoming a man not only for 33 years but forever. We are told in the book of Hebrews 10:5-7 that a body was prepared for Him. ‘Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’ 

Here we come face-to-face with a mystery so deep that wonder and worship can be our only response. Imagine the moment in heaven and the son of God depart. God becoming a foetus. God has a new born baby. God as a child. 

When Kings and world leaders travel to engage in greater affairs of state, they dress themselves in their finest apparel and surround themselves with all the trapping of their wealth and status. 

When the Queen visited America a number of years ago her £4000 of luggage included two outfits for every occasion. A mourning outfit in case someone died, 40 pints of plasma and white kid leather toilet seat covers. She took her own hairdresser, two valets and a host of other attendance. 

When Jesus, the king of Kings came to this earth, He clothed Himself with dust. 

John Henry Jowett, tried to capture the moment and meaning when he said ‘Who would have had sufficient daring of imagination to conceive that God Almighty would have appeared among men as a little child? We should have conceived something sensational, phenomenal, catastrophic but, He became as a little child. God emptied Himself, He let in the light as our eyes were able to bear it’. 

The Christian writer and theologian JB Phillips once wrote a story of an angel describing the splendours of the universe to a junior.  

The whirling galaxies in blazing Suns, they crossed the infinite distances of space to a galaxy of 500 billion stars. The senior angel pointed to a small sphere turning slow slowly on its axis. 

It looked as dull as a dirty tennis ball to the little angel, whose mind had been filled with the immensity and glory of what he had just seen. ‘Watch that one particularly’, said the higher ranking angel pointing with his finger. ‘It looks very small to me said the little angel. What so special about that one?’  

He listened in stunned disbelief as the senior angel told him that this planet, small and insignificant was the renowned visited planet. 

‘Do you mean that our glorious prince stooped down so low as to become one of those creeping, crawling creatures of that floating ball?’ ‘I do and I don’t think he would like you to call them creeping, crawling creatures. For strange as it may seem to us, He loves them. He went down to visit them to lift them up to become like Him.’ The little angel looked blank. Such a thought was almost beyond his comprehension. 

We live in a universe of parallel world. One consists of lakes, mountains and temples and ends with shepherds watching their flocks by night. The other of Angels and supernatural forces and places called heaven and hell. 

One night in the cold, dark and starlit sky those two worlds came together. Little wonder a choir of Angels broke out in spontaneous song, disturbing not only a few shepherds but the entire universe. The world would never be the same again. 

 Let the Wonder of His coming capture You Again 

As we consider the wonder of Jesus coming… 

Let your heart bow in worship.  Let your soul rise in gratitude.  Let your life be filled with praise. 

 He came for you. He came to save you. He came to lift you. He came to make you His own. 

What a Saviour. What a King. What a wonder.