Recapturing Awe of the Birth of Christ

Several years ago, we visited a restaurant with my husband’s side of our family. There was an inflatable snowman in the lobby, and during our long wait to be seated, we observed that every few minutes a fan would turn on, blowing air into the white nylon heap on the floor, expanding it to become a snowman. Then the fan would switch off, and the snowman would slowly “melt” to the floor. Two of our nephews, both about five years old, watched the spectacle. The first had been to the restaurant many times and quickly became bored with this clever trick. The second little boy was a missionary kid who had never seen anything like this before. He watched with glee, clapping his hands in delight as the snowman inflated, and then crouched down to follow it as it deflated. He did this over and over, never losing his delight. Perhaps if he had seen the snowman many times before, as his cousin had, he would have lost interest and become bored with the repetition and predictability. But for the moment, he only expressed sheer delight.

I am so grateful for this experience. It reminds me of how we humans fail to appreciate what has become familiar. When I read the nativity story, do I experience sheer delight and awe at God’s grace, or has the repetition of this story over the years dulled my senses to the magnitude and significance of what happened in Bethlehem more than two thousand years ago? The fact that we become easily bored with both the ordinary and even with the familiar extraordinary is very sad evidence of the fall of man.

Don’t Let Familiarity Steal Your Awe

We are all in danger of familiarity stealing our awe and delight in all that God is, all he has done, and all he has made. Surely, it is a great loss when we don’t sit and marvel at the changing colors of the fall leaves or when we cease to be amazed by the intricacies of snowflakes. But when it comes to missing the staggering significance of the great truths of the Bible, it is an especially tragic loss. How many times have we read about the miracles of Jesus—the calming of the storm, the healing of the lepers, and the multiplication of bread and fish? Are we in awe of these astounding displays of the majesty of Christ, or do we gloss over them in our reading? After all, we know the facts. But do we miss the significance? Does the familiar cause the astounding to become mundane?

In this season of remembering the incarnation—God coming in the flesh—we are again faced with a very familiar story. How do we recapture the awe of the birth of Jesus, the Son of God? When we read the angel’s message to the shepherds, are we in awe that the prophetic message being fulfilled was foretold centuries before? Are we in awe that God kept his promise and brought all the moving parts in line to accomplish his purpose? Do we stand in the dazed reality that Jesus “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:7 ESV)? Do we lift up hearts filled with humble worship that the baby in the manger was God’s Son who came to die on the cross to free us from the curse of sin? How easy it is to gloss over the great truths of Scripture simply because we have read them so often.

Recapture Awe this Season

Though only God can rejuvenate our hearts, the Holy Spirit may be pleased to use some of the following means to awaken our souls:

Pray that God would awaken your soul and give you fresh eyes to see new insights into his Word.

We are human. We bore easily. Only God can make his Word new every morning. Only God can give us the desire to plumb the depths of his revelation to us.

Pause and ponder.

Slowing down in our reading and thinking about what we read may stir our emotions. Looking at individual words and pondering their meaning and writing down our thoughts and insights keeps us from simply glossing over texts. Meditating on the truths revealed to us leaves an imprint on our hearts.

Ask questions . . . and attempt to answer them.

What did it mean for Mary, an unwed young woman, that she was pregnant? Why did Mary go see Elizabeth? What had to happen to put Joseph and Mary in Bethlehem at the precise time of Jesus’s birth? What acts of providence placed Jesus in Bethlehem, fulfilling Old Testament prophecy? Why did the angels choose to give their message to shepherds? What kind of peace did the multitude of heavenly hosts proclaim?

Use your imagination.

Try to picture the scene of the shepherds in the field. You can’t know exactly what it was like, but you can imagine. Perhaps that imagination will cause you to sense the reality and significance of what happened. Had they been tired and bored that evening? What must they have thought when they saw an angel in the sky? Did they shiver in fear, cling to each other, and fall on their faces? What was the voice of the angel like? How did the multitude of heavenly hosts suddenly appear? Did the whole sky light up? Could the shepherds see myriads and myriads of heavenly beings? What did the shepherds think and say as they rushed to Bethlehem? Imagining all this can bring the weight of what happened deeper into your heart.

Remember your finiteness.

Our finite minds cannot comprehend, imagine, or even begin to grasp the magnitude of the infinite God. As you see your inability to worship as you should, worship as you can.

This Christmas, may you be able to rejoice in the good news of great joy that our Savior was born, died, rose again, and is reigning in heaven! He is our Redeemer, High Priest, Mediator, and Coming King!

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