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“He Comes Down”

“He Comes Down”

Last updated on: January 3, 2024 at 1:28 pm by Gene Veith

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“He Comes Down” 2024-01-03T13:28:16-05:00 Gene Veith

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

May you have a merry, happy, and meaningful Christmas!

Earlier this week, we blogged about a quotation from C. S. Lewis in which he told of his brother overhearing a woman complaining about people dragging religion into Christmas. I came across that in an article by Jennifer Graham and Lois M. Collins entitled C.S. Lewis has a different take on Christmas. Here’s what he had to say.

They give a number of other quotations from Lewis about this wonderful and holy day. Here are some of them, which I hope will contribute to your celebrations:

Once in our world, a Stable had something in it that was bigger than our whole world. — The Last Battle

The birth of Christ is the central event in the history of earth — the very thing the whole story has been about. — Interview

In the Christian story, God descends to reascend. He comes down; down from the heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity; down further still, if embryologists are right, to recapitulate in the womb ancient and pre-human phases of life; down to the very roots and seabed of the Nature. — Miracles

The Eternal Being, who knows everything and who created the whole universe, became not only a man but (before that) a baby, and before that a foetus inside a woman’s body. If you want to get the hang of it, think how you would like to become a slug or a crab. — Mere Christianity

God could, had He pleased, have been incarnate in a man of iron nerves, the Stoic sort who lets no sigh escape Him. Of His great humility He chose to be incarnate in a man of delicate sensibilities who wept at the grave of Lazarus and sweated blood in Gethsemane. — Personal correspondence

Some of the pictures of Father Christmas in our world make him look only funny and jolly. But now that the children actually stood looking at him, they didn’t find it quite like that. He was so big, and so glad, and so real, that they all became quite still. They felt very glad, but also solemn. — The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation. They say that God became Man. Every other miracle prepares for this, or exhibits this, or results from this. — Miracles

The week after Christmas, remember our custom here at the Cranach blog of building up to the New Year by first looking backwards at the year that is passing and then looking forward to the new year that looms before us.

We do that primarily by first reviewing the predictions we made this time last year for what 2022 would bring, giving acclaim to readers who made the best predictions (that is, the ones that seemed unlikely at the time but nevertheless came true) and gently deriding the worst predictions. Then we will make our predictions for 2023, setting up the contest for this time next year. (Both of those posts will be taken out from behind the paywall, so that all of last year’s contributors can be recognized and everyone can play.)

Since both New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are over the weekend, we will adjust our timetable. The review of predictions will be held on Thursday, and the post for new predictions will be on Friday. So be thinking of what you think might happen in 2023.

But this weekend just revel in the fact that, as the Nicene Creed confesses, the Son of God “for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary and was made man.”

Illustration: “The Holy Family” by Lucas Cranach the Elder via Wikiart, Public Domain

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