Is life feeling hectic for you at this time of the year? Here’s some encouragement from Claire,

I love Christmas carols, especially O Come All Ye Faithful. However, not often had I hovered on the seemingly awkward words of the second verse until recently. It deserves our attention, because it contains the most encouraging reminder of God’s character in Jesus.

God of God, Light of Light,
Lo! he abhors not the Virgin’s womb;
Very God, Begotten not created.

The verb “abhor” is an interesting word. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as “to regard with disgust and hatred”. And the etymology (study of the origin of words) says that “abhor” comes from the Latin abhorrere, from ab- “away from” + horrere “to shudder”. So it literally means “to shudder away from something in disgust”.

Back to the birth of Christ. Perhaps you have given birth, or better yet, have witnessed a birth. It is a messy, gross business! Beautiful, yes, but very bloody and not for the faint of heart. You can’t get more unglamorous, or more human, than birthing. Three months ago, I gave birth to my second baby, a girl. You can ask my husband how messy and “uncivilized” it was.

Have you ever thought about the fact that the God of the universe, holy and resplendent in glory, begotten, not created, did not shudder away from even the most messy element of becoming a human – birth? I had never thought about this until reading the words of this sermon-in-a-carol.

Christian, be encouraged – Jesus is not afraid of your mess, or any human mess. He does not abhor it or avoid it. He came through a messy birth canal, humbled himself, to take on our sinful messes and redeem them and forgive us. And he did it out of love.

So this Christmas season, if your life is an imperfect mess (mine is!), know that the true celebration of Christ’s birth is seeing that he came to dwell with us in our mess, rescue us from it, and grow us through it.