25Dec25 (25ChristmasEve) We face a broken, anxious world and our own messy lives, and we admit how much we want God to simply fix it all. Christmas shows us something deeper: God doesn’t stay distant or override our freedom—He enters our chaos. In Jesus, God becomes one of us, walking with us in weakness and disorder so we are never alone.

JESUS

Manifest Infirmity, wondrous Humility,

in which all the greatness of God lay hidden:

He is both great in the nature of God

and small in the form of a servant.

But His greatness is not diminished by His smallness,

nor His smallness overwhelmed by His greatness.

He Himself with the Father and the Holy Spirit precedes all spans of time,

but on this day, issuing from His mother,

He stepped into the tide of the years.

* * * * *

He who made man, was made Man;

He was given existence by a mother whom

He brought into existence.

He finds no room in the inn, but

He builds a temple for Himself

in the hearts of those who believe.

Unspeakably wise, He is wisely speechless;

filling the world, He lies in a manger.

He is wrapped in swaddling clothes,

but He gives us a garment of immortality.

John the Baptist baptized Christ, the Giver of Baptism,

in waters made holy by the One Who was baptized.

* * * * *

In Him we see our God made visible,

and so are caught up in the love of the God we cannot see.

He came to pay a debt He didn’t owe

because we owed a debt we couldn’t pay.

Such is the love of our God!

Then let us be kindled with love,

that we may come to His eternity!

By Marie E. Barfknecht (1926-2019)