A mother was putting her child, who was afraid of the dark to bed. “There’s nothing to be afraid of in the dark, and besides the angels are near you”, she said. The child replied, “Mom, I don’t want angels, I want a skin face.”
Sometimes pep talks and promises aren’t enought to get us through. We need something more real to grab hold of. Christmas is about that something more. It’s about God coming to us with a skin face. The apostle Paul put it this way, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.”

Jesus is the face of God come to us in the flesh. But how can an all powerful, eternal God download himself into a human life and yet not be down-sized? This is something that will remain a wonderful mystery to me as long as I live. A ‘mystery’ because it’s impossible to figure out and ‘wonderful’ because i don’t really care how he did it.

The skin face of Jesus brings God close to me. Makes God accessible and approachable. God becoming a human being with the skin face of Jesus  comforts me when I’m unsure of myself or frightened by the darkness and uncertainties of life, or when I’ve failed and I’m ashamed of myself. I’m comforted because when I see the skin face of Jesus, I get past the mystery and connect with the love that is there for me, close by even in the darkness. When I see the skin face of Jesus Christmas really becomes Christmas.