Hidden in Plain Sight

Day 1:

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift (2 Corinthians 9:15)!

No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made Him known (John 1:18)

The band struck up, and the lead singer burst on stage in a dazzle of light and color. My sister and I simultaneously turned and looked at each other, with dumbfounded amusement.

We were at my company’s gala, a yearly affair, held every February—with a different famous group as the entertainment headliner each year. This year was no exception—the band performing was among the best known of all times, internationally famous, with over ninety million records sold worldwide.

In the few short years I had worked at the company, I had never been to the gala, but at my company’s Christmas party a few months earlier, I had won tickets to the event. So here we were!

Earlier that evening, my sister and I were in the hotel elevator heading to our room. We had exchanged pleasantries with the only other elevator occupant—something along the lines of “Which floor?” accompanied by the courtesy of pushing the button. An unsignificant encounter on a short elevator ride. Except now as the band’s lead singer bounded on stage, we realized he was none other than our “elevator companion!”

My friends and colleagues teased me mercilessly when they heard the story. They couldn’t believe my sister and I had not recognized someone so celebrated and famous. I honestly don’t know if it would have made a difference if we had, but that didn’t stop them from thinking we were completely “clueless!” Perhaps they were right.

That experience reminds me of someone else—Someone who came from His majesty in heaven, in the form of a humble and helpless tiny babe and walked among humans but was, and still, is largely unrecognized. Someone who is beyond comparison—far greater and more awe-inspiring than any human celebrity.

Concerning Jesus, the apostle John wrote, “The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him” (John 1: 9-10). In the preceding verses, John described the deity and creation power of Jesus:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:1-5).

To a large measure, in a most ironic and absurd paradox, God’s gift to the world did not meet the expectations of the world. The world looks for pomp and ceremony—God’s Son came to us in the humblest of circumstances, lowering Himself to the depths of humanity in order to reach the depths of humanity. All through Scripture, His “humble estate” has been widely described:

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him (Isaiah 53:2).

“Say to Daughter Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, (righteous and victorious), gentle (lowly) and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey’” (Zechariah 9:9; Matthew 21:5).

…Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, He made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross (Philippians 2:5-9)!

The One “called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6) “emptied Himself” so He could come and live among us. Here He was, "the Son... the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word " (Hebrews 1:3).

The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).

God’s gift to the world. Hidden in plain sight. “But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God (John 1:12).

O Come Let Us Adore Him.