Recently on this blog, I’ve been explaining theological concepts through cocktails. For example, ice is helpful in understanding mortality, bitters and infusion are helpful when thinking about transformation, and so on. But as I sit here on Christmas in 2018 and think about the miracle Christians celebrate on this days, I realize there’s no parallel.

There’s no analogy to explain how the maker of the entire universe came down
to dwell within the confines of time and space
as a helpless infant with a finite lifespan.

There’s no analogy to explain how one with boundless wisdom and power and love
could be born to a human mother and raised in a human family
where he had dirty diapers and chores and scraped knees,
where he had to learn how to talk and walk and feed himself,
and where he faced all the challenges and temptations every human faces.

There’s no analogy to explain how absolute holiness,
a force once feared for its all-consuming nature,
could be incarnate in a baby.
There’s no analogy to explain how reconciliation and redemption
could flow so beautifully from a life.

But that’s Jesus.
Not just like a human; fully human.
Not just like God; fully God.
The Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity,
didn’t descend from parted clouds amid the sound of trumpets;
he was born kicking and screaming to a young mother who
(having been advised by an angel) recognized the greatness she bore.
Not from Bethlehem, she was there with her new husband who,
despite the controversy, had stayed with her and would help raise the child
(again at the instruction of an angel).

Even at this humble beginning, angels couldn’t help but sing out in joy,
alerting nearby shepherds to the events unfolding in Bethlehem.
“Glory to God in the Highest!” they sang,
“And on earth peace to those on whom God’s favor rests!”
And so the infant was seen first not by the powerful and influential
but by the outcasts at the very bottom of the socioeconomic ladder.

Something new began that night,
the night we now celebrate.
Something which defies all understanding:

Though having always been here,
God entered the world in a new way,
through an infant,
the baby Jesus.

There is no analogy for such absolute love.
Merry Christmas, everyone!