based on what a person had, whether it was wealth,
success or celebrity. Let's call it a culture of bigger and
better, more and more. To receive less than I thought I
deserved that Christmas was a violation of the rules of
this culture. Something was wrong.
concrete acquisition that would prove my worth. We can
certainly excuse this in a 10�year�old. (Please, do!) But
what if that lust for more, supported and nurtured by
the social environment and important influencers, grew
large and turned someone into a greedy, driven, self-cen-
tered person who relentlessly pursued a life of bigger
and better. And what if this drivenness became the
norm in our world? What if we became a nation of people
far from it. We need only look at the multiple bank
collapses, the mortgage over�reaches and many other
examples of our addiction to more and more.
the high festival of our drivenness to acquire. Quite
simply, the Christmas season, it seems, has been largely
confiscated by forces that nullify the Christmas story itself.
turns our view of Him on its head. It says He came to
earth in human flesh. He became a man (John 1:14). He
radically downsized. Somehow, "high and lifted up" had
to make room for "humble and lowered down."
preach the greatness of God. They are right to do so, and
they are probably thinking in terms of the mind�bog-
gling complexity and breathtaking beauty of the endless
universe He has created and still is creating. Also, they
may well be thinking of the greatness of God's grace, a
favor. Or they may have in mind the love of God, broad
enough to reach us all. The Christmas story, however,
gives witness to what I believe is the crowning miracle
of God's greatness: He became small.
is quite understandable in a world that does not like to
think small. Where does a self�lowering God fit into this
self�enhancing culture of ours? What can this God offer
a world caught up in its fascination with bigger and better?
What exactly was God doing when He became a
become human beings. A human being is who God
or our sin is that "we're only human" are sadly mistaken.
The glory God has given us is the glory of being fully
human. Our sin is our presuming to be something else,
something greater. Our sin is to live such a lie.
humanity. He was born poor and stayed poor to expose
the dehumanizing seduction of wealth. He avoided
making Himself famous, built no political power base
and became a failure by contemporary standards, in
order to delegitimize the lust for power. He stayed
within a relatively obscure and insignificant part of the
great Roman Empire and spent most of His time with
the marginalized so that He could affirm their full
worth. He allowed the power of a crowd, an empire
and a religious establishment to deliver Him to a
criminal's crucifixion. He put Himself alongside the
worst of us, just in case there was anyone who thought
He was too much above them, or too good for them.
He became small to show us who we are. He was our
model for being genuinely human.