There is a story of a woman who was sitting in front of her fireplace on Christmas Eve and she was thinking about the Christmas story and how incredible it is. She wondered why the Creator of the Universe would decide to become human and live among us, and why God would choose to be born in a dirty stable among farm animals. It just didn't make any sense to her. In fact, it seemed absurd and ridiculous.
A strange sound outside interrupted the woman's thoughts. She couldn't imagine what it was and so she went and looked outside. There in the moonlight on the snow-covered lawn, she saw about a dozen geese. They were crying out frantically and staggering about. They seemed dazed and confused. The sight of the exhausted geese stumbling about in the snow moved the woman to pity. She put on her coat, went outside, and opened the door to her warm garage. Then she tried to herd the geese into the garage. However, the more the woman tried to help them the more frightened they became.
Soon the geese were scattered all over the front yard. Instead of helping them, the woman was making matters worse. Finally, after about twenty minutes the woman gave up. As she stood there in the moonlight, looking at the frightened geese, she realized that they had no idea she was trying to help them. They had no idea that she was a friend and not an enemy.
Then a strange thought came to her. She thought that if just for a minute she could become one of them — just an ordinary goose — and could talk to them in their own language, she could explain to them what she was trying to do.
And then it hit her. That's what Christmas is all about. She realized that Christmas is about God looking down from heaven upon the human race and seeing us staggering about, dazed and confused by the demands and difficulties of earthly life, in a sense, like the frozen geese in the woman's yard.
It's about God pitying us as the woman pitied the geese in her yard. It's about God looking down from heaven and saying of us as did the woman: "If only I could become one of them and talk to them in their own language, I could tell them how much I love them and want to help them."
When the woman recognized this, Christmas made a lot more sense to her. It no longer seemed ridiculous or absurd.
And it isn't ridiculous or absurd. It shows us just how much God loves us that he would come to us, as one of us, in the humblest of ways. And it is even more than just being loved by God. Christmas is about God becoming one of us and giving us a share of God's own love and concern as we share that love with others. It's about God giving us the power to do for others what God does for us.+
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