A gift has added significance when there is a story behind it. I received such a gift this Christmas. It was actually created in my presence during the previous months without me realizing it. On Christmas Eve the gift was personally delivered in a box that was wrapped in such a way that when you took the cover off, the handsome gift paper stayed intact. Ingenious! You could easily restore the gift to the original wrapped box so that it looked as if it had never been opened. If you so desired, you could relive and retell the gift-discovery experience as often as you liked.

This particular gift-giver encouraged me to open this specially wrapped package in their presence. When I saw the hand-crafted gift inside, so many episodes from the previous months suddenly made sense. An explanation was given as to how and why the gift was created. A written version was also attached. Of course, I was so delighted by my friend's creativity and thoughtfulness and the unusual circumstances behind the gift, that I wanted to put the gift back in the box and retell the story in the presence of others. I sensed the Gift-giver was pleased that I should do so.

At Christmas we get to retell and relive the experience of God's superlative gift-giving shown to us in the Incarnation of Christ. It is in the arrival of this gift that so many previous and subsequent episodes and prophecies make sense. We all know that the gift is more precious than the wrapping but God's gift of Himself came in the most delightful wrapping of an infant child. It is so wonderful, so surprising and so significant that we want to revisit the unveiling again and again.

There is a story behind the gift. The Scriptures give us a written account providing the hidden details of the mystery. God was able to join Himself to the human nature, because in its original incorruptible form there was a spirit in man with which God, Who is Spirit, could directly correspond (1Corinthians 6:17). The human nature was initially fashioned in the image of God (Genesis 1:26, 27) before it was corrupted by sin. Humankind was privileged beyond all creation, including that of the angels (Psalm 8:4) in that we were created to become recipients of a divine nature (2Peter 1:4) and consequently share a deep correspondence with the community of the Godhead. Jesus came to restore us to that forfeited privilege.

As Jesus grew, the packaging of His humanity changed while the contents of His glorious life remained the same. He matured into full manhood and fulfilled God's purpose as the One ordained to take upon His purest self the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6). Crucified in weakness (2Corinthians 13:4), He identified with our sin, yet without sinning. Having suffered death, His humanity was perfected and repackaged on our behalf with a resurrection body. Ascending to the Father, He constituted a new humanity that has gone through death to die no more. His unique quality of deathless life is imparted to all who believe on Him to be freshly repackaged in our humanity through the work of the Holy Spirit. Our God is with us (Emmanuel) as His life is repackaged in the church, the corporate body of Christ.

It is wonderful to rediscover the gift of Christ at Christmas and to recognize both what He has done for us and what He has come to do in us. For this gift is God's answer to the heart-cry of every human being (Ecclesiastes 3:11). This gift is the Life of the One in Whom all the nations of the earth were promised to be blessed (Genesis 22:18). This gift resonates with the truest and noblest desires of every nation (Haggai 2:7). This is the gift that was purposed from the beginning of creation, promised in Eden (Genesis 3:15) and anticipated by the prophets throughout the ages (Isaiah 7:14; 9:6).

It is important to know that Jesus is no longer packaged as an infant child. He is risen and repackaged in incorruptible humanity as the glorified Lord and eternal King (though He still bears the nailprints). At Christmas we should not just look backward to Christ's awe-inspiring entrance as the babe born of the virgin's womb but look forward to knowing Him better in the present moment through fellowship in the Spirit as the head of a new creation and allow Him to repackage Himself in our humanity until He is fully formed in us (See Galatians 4:19). The pondering of His virgin birth should lead every wrongdoer to pray the words of the familiar carol: "Cast out my sin and enter in, be born in me today."

We should look forward to the ongoing miracle of His Incarnation in the hearts of believers. The celebration of "Christ tabernacling among us in a human body" (John 1:14) should cause us to look forward to the day when a loud voice from the throne declares, "Now the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God." (Revelation 21:3 NIV) Let us receive one another as bearers of His life and image; creatively wrapped Christmas packages from the Lord!

If we, being evil by comparison, know how to give good gifts to delight family and friends, how much more our Father in heaven! (Luke 11:13) He has given us the gift of His Living Word that is beyond words.

Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. (2Corinthians 9:15 KJV).