At the beginning of time as we know it God spoke the world into existence. He created beautiful things.

Mountains.
Oceans.
Forests.
Flowers.
Animals.
The moon and sun.

And he made man and woman already knowing that these people, the objects of his affection, would betray him, bringing death and disease and shame and decay into the world.

With that full knowledge he knew what it would cost him, but he made us anyway. He is kindness itself.

When sin flipped the world on its’ head, he decided to answer in kind. Instead of sending a valiant, conquering messiah with regal pronouncements, he became a tiny soft-skinned baby, a weakling, to turn the world upright again.

Therein lies the beauty of it all.

He is bigger than the known and unknown universe and unfathomably strong, yet he took the form of a needy infant.

He is the king but he first announced his birth to the shepherds, the lowest of the low.

He is so holy Moses had to remove his shoes when in his presence, yet he was born in a stable, covered in blood and vernix.

Sin was in its’ death throws when that tiny child entered the world. There was nothing stopping his kindness. “I have loved you with an everlasting love,” he says in Jeremiah 31. “I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.”

If recognizing Jesus as Lord was simply about his size, we could acknowledge his bigness without it impacting our daily lives.

If recognizing Jesus as Lord was simply about his strength, we could acknowledge his might, but might does not draw us to know him.

If recognizing Jesus as Lord was simply about his holiness then we could fall on our faces without an ounce of love in our hearts.

His kindness is what differentiates him from all others. His kindness is what makes the massive, mighty and holy king approachable.

It was his kindness that sent him to earth that fateful night in the stable. He reached to humanity in the form of a cooing infant to turn us right side up in this upside down world.

The creator and author of existence became an oxygen-breathing, goose-bump-wearing, blood-pumping, human to hug his beautiful creation to himself.