I like the way Charles Lewis begins his article in the National Post:
The genius of Christianity is never so much in view as it is during Christmas. Others will argue that Easter is the moment, the time when Christ rose from the dead, and by doing so redeemed all of mankind. That is pretty heady stuff. No question.
Christmas, though, is just as profound, but in a much quieter way.
Christmas is about what it means to have the kind of faith that few can fathom or risk. It is about trust beyond all comprehension.
It would have been a lot easier if God had come down in a chariot, followed by celestial armies, laid down the law to sinful Israel and then headed back to Heaven without a hair on His head out of place and not a scratch to be found on Him anywhere.
Instead, God's grand entry took place in a barn full of animals, exposed to cold and danger.
"God
stepped into history," said Gilles Mongeau, a Jesuit priest in Toronto.
"But God didn't avoid any of it from birth to death. God became
involved in history in a radical way that had never been seen before.
It starts with a baby, weakness, poverty and leads to salvation." [More. . .] (HT: The Black Kettle)