John Betjeman wrote some memorable lines on the Incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ: ‘And is it true this most tremendous tale of all, / The Maker of the stars and sea / Became a child on earth for me?’ It is true, we believe, but it isn’t the whole truth: for the whole truth is that the Maker became a man and was thus uniquely qualified to be man’s redeemer. I came across a classic quotation which comes closer to the truth revealed by the apostle John in the opening words of his Gospel: ‘If Jesus had not been man, He could not have redeemed men. If He had not been a righteous man, He could not have redeemed unrighteous men. And if He had not been God’s Son, He could not have redeemed men for God or made them the sons of God.’
The philosopher Pascal wrote, ‘Say what you will, there is something in the Christian religion that is astonishing.’ Dorothy Sayers said what happened at Bethlehem is nothing less than "the personal irruption of God into human history.’