Scripture

"Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness."
Philippians 2:6-7

Observation
One of the most beautiful descriptions of our Saviour to be found anywhere is that given by Isaiah in the 53rd chapter of his prophecy: “He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground” (verse 2).

When I was a little boy growing up in Alor Setar, one of the first things I would do on waking up is run out of the house to the little garden we had in front of the house to see if any young shoot had pushed through the ground for the seeds that my grandma had planted into the soil days earlier. Those young shoots were indeed tender. The delicate sprout would appear to be mostly water, held together one scarcely knows how, and so brittle that it will snap asunder at the slightest touch. Only after the passing of several days does it toughen up enough to endure external pressure without damage.

While a newborn baby is not as fragile as the tender plant just emerged from the soil, the likeness is too plain to miss, and the prophet spoke well when he compared the one to the other. This past week, my wife and I made a trip to KL to visit my niece who had just given birth to a baby boy. He was a comely little baby but as a helpless, crying human thing who was vulnerable from a thousand directions and he was wholly dependent for his very life upon his parents, familyand friends. No one can pick up a day-old baby and not sense the pathetic frailty of it--a barely conscious blob of sweet, perishable life only now arrived from the ancient void of nonexistence.

Application
So our Lord came to the manger in Bethlehem that first Christmas morning, not out of nonexistence, but from eternal pre-existence; not as a son of man only but as Son of Man and Son of God in the fullest sense of both terms; a tender plant and “a root out of a dry ground.”

What utter condescension on Christ's part! From eternal pre-existence as God, He empties Himself and enters human existence as a poor, helpless new-born baby. He does it all for you and me only because so great is His love for us!

Prayer
For me, Lord, You emptied yourself of the exercise of Your divine prerogatives. You showed me the meaning of complete humility.