The birth of Jesus Christ was to be the fulfilment of all the promises that God had made through the Old Testament prophets… all 322 of them! One mathematician has worked out that the probability of all 322 prophecies being fulfilled in one man is 1:1 with 84-0's! In other words the birth of Jesus Christ was no everyday occurrence!

And yet in another way his birth was such an occurrence. The last of the prophecies was directly to Joseph, a reminder of a foretelling 600 years earlier… "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" - which means, "God with us."

This baby was "IMMANUEL"… "God with us!" His birth had to be human for God to identify with our human situation. It also had to be a divine birth for God to be with us. But what does that mean for you and me?

In October I was privileged to spend a week on Iona, an island off the west coast of Scotland. George MacLeod, the founder of the Iona Community, told a story about a stained glass window. The window pictured the Incarnation, the story of Christmas. One day a boy threw a stone at the window nicking out the 'e' of the word 'Highest' in the text "GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST". Until it was repaired, it thus read: "GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGH ST." George thought it a shame that the window was repaired. God's glory has come down to earth in Jesus Christ, enabling what is human to be filled with holiness and truth. That is what the story of Christmas is all about… that is the true meaning of the incarnation.

"Pleased as man with man to dwell - Jesus our Immanuel"