Most people think that the Christmas story begins with the Angel Gabriel telling Mary she had been favoured by God to carry in her womb the Son of God. Then people very often recognise the events that happen between that moment and the actual birth of the Child, as we are all too familiar with the Nativity scenes that so many try to portray, either by performing them or illustrating them.

The story does not begin like that at all. It begins like all true stories do: in the beginning! That is right. Jesus was there in the beginning – He is the Creator. The Bible tells in John 1:1-4:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.”

Also in Colossians 1:15-17:

“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶ For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷ He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

In Genesis 1:26 we read:

^” Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’”

In the above verse Let us make mankind in our image… God is using the pronouns in the plural (we and our) because Jesus was there, present during the entire creation of the worlds and the universe.

That is where we first see Jesus – in the beginning. In fact He is present throughout the whole history of the greatest rescue plan ever.  The womb was necessary so God in his amazing, infinite love would be made one of us and the manger was just a place to rest that night, while He waited silently to fulfill what had been decided before time began.

Will you look at Jesus this Christmas as a little fragile, dependant, powerless baby or will you worship Him as the Creator?

God bless.