The Birth of Jesus the Messiah

I remember the moment I heard for the first time — over a supermarket speaker system — words to what even I, as a Jewish New Yorker, thought was a familiar Christmas carol: "Joy to the world, the Lord is come."

I stood frozen: "The LORD has come"??? The song always said that? Oh how I wanted to shout: "Stop shopping!! Listen!! The Lord — God! — has come!!!"

"But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons" (Galatians 4:4).


And so, quietly, without notice or fanfare, amidst a few animals in a stable in the little town of Bethlehem, God, the Creator of all that is — became Man — for us.