The forebodings of Christmas are everywhere. The story of Jesus' birth is not a "once upon a time" fairy tale. Rather, it is an event that occurred in the midst of human history. Paul wrote in Galatians (4:4), "when the fullness of time [Greek: kairos] had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman." Paul used the term "kairos" to indicate the divine in-breaking into our human reality with the birth of his Son, Jesus. The Evangelist Luke (2:1-20) places Jesus' birth at a particular place at a particular time in world history when Augustus was emperor. Still, there are many people for whom the story of God’s Incarnation is incomprehensible. They cannot, and don’t, want to believe that God has become flesh – a person like you and me. In the form of a small child, God came down to earth!

Recently, I have heard the following anecdote about a man who did not believe in God. This story is probably fiction, yet it carries a lot of truth. This man did not hesitate to let others know how he felt about God, religion, and religious festivals. His wife, however, believed; she raised her children in the Christian tradition: to have faith in God and Jesus – despite her husband's disparaging comments.

One Christmas Eve, she asked her husband to come along to the church service, to celebrate the birth of Jesus. But he refused. He said, "That story is nonsense!" And he added, "Why would God lower himself to come to earth as a person? That's plainly ridiculous!"

With that, his wife and children left for the service, leaving the man home alone on Christmas Eve. A while later, the winds outside grew stronger, and the snow turned into a blizzard. Looking outside the window, all the man could see was a blinding snowstorm. He sat down to relax by the fireplace. Then, he heard a loud thump. Something had hit the window. He looked out, but he couldn't see more than just a few feet. When the snow let up a little, he went outside to see what could have been the beating on the window.

In the field near the house, he saw a flock of geese. Apparently, they got caught in a snowstorm on their way south. They were lost and stranded on his farm, with no food and shelter. The man felt sorry for the geese. He wanted to help them. He thought that his barn would be a good place for them to stay. So, he walked over to the barn, opened the door, and waited for the geese to go inside.

But the geese made no attempt to go into the barn where they would find shelter. They just fluttered around, aimlessly. So, the man tried to get their attention, but no matter what he tried, he rather scared the geese and scattered them in every direction except toward the barn. Nothing he did could get them into the barn. "Why don’t they follow me?!" he wondered out loud. "Can't they see that this is the place where they can survive the storm?"

He thought for a moment and realized that they just would not follow a human. "If only I were a goose," he said, "then I could save them." Then he had an idea: he went into the barn, got one of his own geese, and carried it on his arms as he circled around behind the flock of wild geese. He then released his goose. It flew through the flock, straight back into the barn. And one-by-one, the other geese followed it to safety.

As he watched all the geese going into the barn, the words that he had spoken just a few moments ago revisited him, "If only I were a goose, then I could save them." He then thought about what he had said to his wife earlier, "Why would God want to be like us? That’s ridiculous." Suddenly, it all made sense. That is why God had come. We are like these geese: blind, lost, perishing. God sent his Son to become like us so He could show us the way to save us. – Suddenly, he understood, why Christ had come. Years of disbelief vanished.

Christmas is the story that God has come in our midst to save an otherwise lost humanity. God had to be born among us: truly flesh, truly human. In Jesus, God came looking for us, to bring our lives back on track ... to bring us peace and salvation.

I wish you a blessed season of Advent and a wonderful celebration of God's Incarnation – in this time, and beyond!

Bjoern E. Meinhardt, Pastor