Christ is born!

This time of year, we celebrate the Nativity of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It is breathtaking to think that the Word of God, immortal and all-powerful and invulnerable, would take on human flesh, humbling Himself to be born into His own creation.He loved us enough to become one of us -- vulnerable like us. Subject to heat and cold, to pain and suffering, so that He could reveal Himself to us, expressing the love of God not just in words or ideas, but in flesh -- reaching out, touching us, healing us.He became that little baby in a manger, the man who walked among us teaching in parables, and the man who was beaten and hung to die on a cross. But even after He went down into Hades and trampled down death by death, and even after He ascended, gloriously and victoriously, carrying our human flesh right up to heaven… even then, He does not leave us.Christ is still incarnate today. He is right here with us, in the flesh. We are His hands and His feet. We are Christ in the flesh, in the world. We are the Holy Church, the Body of Christ. Whenever we reach out in love, whenever we receive someone in their pain or in their joy, we are Jesus’ hands, consoling, healing, nourishing.Every time we come together in loving community, we are an icon. Every person is an icon of Christ, and whenever we do the work of being Christ's body, we incarnate Him and become an icon of His Nativity. When we gather in loving community and reach out to love one another, we are an icon of the Kingdom of God.