The first step.

I'll admit it. It's hard for me to even begin to wrap my mind around the story of Christmas. I mean, honestly, it is a really absurd story if you truly think about it.

The same God who created the entire universe subjected himself to coming to earth as a little baby? Born in a manger? As a nobody in society? It's crazy.

But the thing is, the "craziness" of the story is what actually makes it infinitely beautiful.

We talk about Jesus's act of going to the cross as the ultimate example of humility, but that was just the culminating last step in his journey. Each step that brought him closer to the cross required sacrifice. Especially the first step. And Christmas is all about that first step.

Think about it this way -- pretend you've already died and gone to heaven. You're in perfect fellowship with God, being filled with immeasurable joy and peace in his presence as you behold the fullness of his glory before your very eyes. It's so much better than you ever could have imagined -- your experience of God's presence is like plunging into and exploring the depths of the ocean, whereas on earth it was as if you were playing in a kiddie pool.
So there you are in heaven, fully content and fulfilled, and God asks you a question. "Will you leave heaven behind and instead go to the broken, sinful earth? Will you enter the world as a helpless baby, not even capable of comprehending the words that people are saying around you? Will you grow up living a lowly life, learning from your father how to carve wood? Will you live a life of ministry, forsaking your family and having no home? Will you spend the last 3 years of your life teaching and healing needy and sick people who will constantly bombard you when you are famished and sleep-deprived? Will you disciple twelve men, only to be betrayed by one of them so that you are unjustly arrested? Will you be forsaken by the crowds and condemned to a humiliating death on a cross? Will you be spat on, beaten, mocked, and then carry your cross to a hill where you will be in excruciating pain for 3 hours before you die a shameful death?
Will you leave my presence where you have fullness of joy, and instead live a life full of sorrow? And will you do it simply to save the lives of the very people who forsook you, spat on you, beat you, and mocked you?"

The main point of Christmas is that Jesus willingly chose to live life in reverse. From before the foundation of the world, He lived life in perfect harmony with the Father and the Spirit, in fullness of life -- but then he decided to descend into time and space to enter a broken, twisted, messed up world. He knew full well that he would be tempted, suffer, and be forsaken by sinners who he came to save. But being disowned by humans was nothing in comparison to who else he knew would disown him.

Leaving heaven was just the beginning of Jesus' departure from the perfect unity of the trinity. Coming to earth was his first step towards the cross, where the unity would be completely broken and his Father would forsake him. Jesus knew that at that time, the Father would withdraw the fullness of his love and instead pour out the fullness of his wrath. Yet that did not stop Jesus from coming.

He literally gave it all away. There was nothing that Jesus didn't have. Yet there was nothing that Jesus didn't freely surrender.

"Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." - Philippians 2:5-8