I read something from G. K. Chesterton recently that made me stop in my tracks. It said that at the incarnation, the omnipotent became impotent. Basically, the omnipotent God that even the entire universe can’t contain became an impotent infant who was as helpless as any other human baby and could fit comfortably in Mary’s arms.

C. S. Lewis once wrote that a manger once held something that was bigger than our entire world. The infinite became human and pitched His tent among us, as John 1 says. That’s the staggering paradox that doesn’t fit comfortably on a bumper sticker on a car.

Christmas isn’t just a nice image of a mother holding a newborn baby boy with proud father hovering over and shepherds drawing near. Christmas is God as a baby, laying in a manger and destined for a cross. Christmas is where the impossible became reality and where darkness and despair turned to hope and light.

Christmas means that on the longest night of the year, there is a hope that is on its way. There is a joy that’s coming. Yes, technically the shortest day of the year is four days before Christmas, but the nights are still longer than the days at this point. Sometimes, evil and wrong seem to be stronger and the wrong side seems to be winning.

Yet in that moment of apparent defeat, victory comes in the form of a baby laying in the straw. The Glorious Impossible (one of my favorite Christmas songs ever) is born. The defeat of sin, death, and hell that was sealed on the cross begins in a manger. Let all heaven and earth rejoice.