One of the new television programs this season that we have enjoyed is called “Undercover Boss,” and shows what takes place as the CEO of a company disguises himself and goes undercover and works for a week in various aspects of  his business. He is supposedly competing with another individual to get a job with the company and they are doing a reality show about the two, so have a  camera crew around as they work. In most cases, it is a very humbling experience  for the CEO as he is usually incapable of performing at a level to actually get  hired by his own company!  In a couple cases he even got fired in the very  brief time he worked for one of his employees!  He usually attempted to work at 4 or 5 jobs and/or locations. In doing so, he found some very dedicated  employees and how hard they really work and the difficult life situation  in which some of them are.
When he goes undercover he also leaves his family and his plush home and surroundings  and stays at a very modest motel near the job for which he is supposedly  applying. At the end of the week, he moves back home and then those he worked  for are called into the corporate office to give their evaluation as to which of  the two employees should be hired. What they don’t know is that they are really going to meet the CEO of the company who then reveals to them that he had gone undercover and worked for them. As they realize the hard time they gave their  “big boss,” it is rather embarrassing, especially if they “fired him!”  But  then he compliments them on what a hard, enthusiastic worker they are and  rewards them for their efforts and often makes some changes to improve the  company from the things he learned as he was undercover.  Then all the  employees of the company are gathered together where they get to hear about the  CEO’s experiences as he had gone undercover and what he learned and what changes  he and the company are going to make as a result.
I am reminded  as I watch the reality show of how our “CEO” went “undercover.” That is, how God  the Son, our Creator, came to earth and took on human form as a helpless little  baby in Bethlehem. How He had to be held and nurtured like any other baby. And  how He wasn’t born in a king’s palace but in a cave or a stable where He was  laid in an animal feeding trough and the only ones to welcome Him besides Mary and Joseph were a few astonished, smelly shepherds and probably a menagerie of  animals (and later some magi from the east).  What an inconceivable scene!  The Creator of the universe coming to take on the very form of one of His  creatures in order to die for them. Talk about humbling.
The Apostle  John, arguably Jesus’ closest earthly friend, rather than give an account of the  birth of Christ such as we read in Luke or Matthew, relates His coming to earth  this way:  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with  God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came  into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into  being. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines  in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.  There came a man,  sent from God, whose name was John (the baptist). He came for a witness, that he  might bear witness of the light, that all might believe through Him. He was not  the light, but came that he might bear witness of the light. There was the true  light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world,  and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know  Him.   He came to His own, and those who were His own did not  receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become  children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of  blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And  the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory  as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (Jn.  1:1-14). 
The Apostle Paul also speaks about the incarnation (God becoming man)  as he writes to the church at Philippi, saying: “Have this attitude in  yourselves which was also in “Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form  of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied  Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of  men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming  obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:5-8).  
God the Son left the glory of heaven and made Himself helpless, vulnerable, hungry, and tired. He was misunderstood, mistreated, and ultimately crucified. Nothing could prepare us to understand the depth of His love as demonstrated in His unimaginable humility. His actions on that wonderful day we celebrate every year as Christmas displayed love better than any definition could ever hope to do. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one  and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal  life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to  save the world through Him” (Jn. 3:16, 17). These familiar verses are  the Magna Carta of the incarnation. Christmas is God unrecognized, God unexpected, God misunderstood (the “Undercover Boss”). It is also to our utter  amazement and joy, God delightfully revealed.  Though it had been  prophesied, His birth was nothing we expected, and more than we could have hoped  for. His humility touches us deeply, revealing to us the depth of God’s love from His humble birth to His humiliating and agonizing death on the cross. It is  proof of the love He has for us. We could never have sought, understood or  recognized such a God, so He had to come looking to us. That is the  inescapable conclusion of the Christmas story. God came pursuing us. He came to  reveal Himself to us because He wanted us to know Him. He wanted us to know the depth of His love for us. Words weren’t enough. Only actions could communicate  the extent to which He would go to bring us back home.
We can  never hope to capture the Christmas spirit unless we understand the meaning of  the incarnation, of how God loved us so much that He was willing to come to earth and to be one of us, to reveal Himself and then to be arrested, tortured  and put to death to pay the penalty for our sins.  We call it  Christmas–the incarnation. The day God became a man. With Paul we should all proclaim, “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”    Have you received God’s love gift? Have you personally asked Christ to  be your Savior and Lord?  If not, why not do so. It will be your best  Christmas ever!

Forever  His,
Pastor Dave