At Christmas we remember baby Jesus, born to Mary, lying in a manger surrounded by cattle and sheep. But why do we celebrate this scene at Christmas? What does a baby born all those years ago have to do with us living in Adelaide today?

Simply this: This baby would be human but he would also be God. He was God’s Son, who had existed with God the Father (whom we normally just call God) and God the Holy Spirit since before the creation of the world, since eternity. And so here’s a glimpse of who God is. He’s Father, Son, and Spirit. He’s existed as this three-in-one God, in perfect love and relationship within himself, for eternity. That sounds quite strange. And it is! But it’s also exciting. Because if this God is all about love and relationships, then the universe he’s made will be about love and relationships too. It’s not about power, or possessions, or just pointlessness. The God of love and relationship has made us to enjoy a life of love that lasts and of relationships that work. That’s a God worth knowing. And that’s the God who was going to be born to Mary; God the Son come to live on earth.

The God of eternity, who knows and controls everything, becoming a baby who needs changing, feeding, burping. We’ll never understand how God could travel so far—-from his throne in heaven to the womb of a woman in Israel. But he did. The angel said that this baby “will be called the Son of God.” God came to earth, as one of us, to live in the world he created.

So what will God as a human be like? What does he want to tell us? What has he come to do?

Simply this, to save His people form their sins.