I have often attended Christmas Eve services that seemed to skip ahead from the birth of Jesus to his death and resurrection; services that finished with an altar call, as though Jesus’ birth and life were merely the back story to set up for the “the main reason” He came to earth. As though Jesus was simply born to die.
We sometimes want to condense the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus into some cosmic formula instead of recognizing the significance of the entire story, and without entering into the story ourselves to learn what the incarnation means for us as we seek to grow into the nature of God while living an embodied existence among our fellow creatures. Crucifixion and resurrection are also things for each of us to experience in our own lives rather than simply one-time historical events for us to remember, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves—we have Lent and Easter to reflect on these mysteries. The incarnation alone is a mystery significant enough for us to spend an entire season entering into, and that is what Advent and Christmas are for.