God so loved the world

When all the gifts have been opened and the holiday feast consumed, when all the relatives and friends have gone home and the day has come to an end, this startling reality remains:

God so loves us that not only were we created in God's image, but God became human, like us in all things save sin.   The theologian Michael Himes once observed that "the great mystery hidden from all generations and revealed in the Incarnation is God's secret ambition.  From all eternity God has wanted to be exactly like you and me.  This is the ultimate statement of the goodness of being human, the rightness of humanity.  The immense dignity of the human person is at the heart of the Christian tradition because it flows directly from the doctrine of the Incarnation itself.  Indeed, the Incarnation is the highest compliment ever paid to being human."

Blessings to all on this Christmas night.