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I get a lot of joy out of watching babies view themselves in the mirror for the first time. The wonder and the confusion that they have at this little person who is staring at them is a beautiful sight to behold. Of course, for far too many people, that first glance in the mirror portends a life of being consumed with self. What started as wonder quickly becomes worship as they strive to make the whole world revolve around them.

It may be easy to think that this doesn’t describe us, or our children, but all of us worship something. Every human being that has ever been created centers their thoughts, attention, words and actions on whatever is their highest priority.  While I have never done a scientific study and I know of no way to prove whether this assertion is right, my hypothesis is that if someone doesn’t worship God, they are most likely to worship themselves. They may not think of it as worship, but if they are their own center, if what is best for them is of most importance, then that is who they worship. When we don’t serve the one true God, we are most likely to be consumed with serving ourselves. And often what hinders someone from surrendering their life to Christ is that they don’t want to give up their claim to self in order to follow Him.

It is this realization that makes it all the more remarkable that Christ was willing to give up the worship that He deserved when He came to this Earth. The One who rightly should be the center of every person’s life was willing to set that aside to serve those who choose instead to worship themselves. Of course, there were some moments while Jesus was on Earth where He was worshipped as He should be, but by and large, He forewent adoration and praise and instead received condemnation and hate. He set aside the worship that He deserved and in exchange was scorned and accused.

This should amaze us. Most of us, myself included, do not handle it well when we don’t get the credit that we believe we are due. When we work hard and it is disregarded, we get bent out of shape. When we sacrifice and others lack gratitude, we wonder how they could respond in that way. When we are cut off on the freeway, or ignored at the shopping counter, we are astounded at the rudeness of this world. Yet we do not deserve to be treated any better. We think we are deserving of more, but we are wrong.  What we deserve is condemnation and judgment because of our sin against a holy God. And yet God, who should justly receive all the worship that ever was and is and will be, exchanged what He was due to take on the punishment for our sin. He deserved worship and received hatred. We deserve nothing good, yet we refuse to appropriately worship Him.

The contrast is remarkable. The proper response to Jesus is what He experienced in Heaven when the angels surrounded Him and declared His holiness (Is. 6:3). And while the angels also commemorated His physical birth, for most of His public ministry, there was little worship of Him. Those who should have known who He was were often those who reviled Him the most. Those He came to save refused to acknowledge that He was their Savior. He deserved worship, and yet they accused Hm of worshipping Satan. Even still, He was willing to set aside the adoration that He was due in order to save His enemies from their sin. It is easy to sentimentalize the celebration of Jesus’ birth; to laud the nativity scene for its quaintness and simplicity. However, let us remember that it was marked by loud proclamations of praise (Luke 2:13), May our celebrations of Christmas be marked by the same. May we supply what was so often missing from Christ’s time on Earth – devoted and heartfelt worship of Him.

Southern Californians are often teased for our weakness towards weather fluctuations. Because we are accustomed to very moderate temperatures, any type of interruption to “partly sunny with an ocean breeze” can cause us consternation. When the temperature drops below 70 degrees, we consider it frigid. And if there is water falling from the sky, we really don’t know what to do. Of course, there are days when the temperature “plummets” and rain interrupts our outdoor living, but for the most part, our days, at least weather-wise, are marked by relative comfort.

Sometimes Californians don’t fully appreciate the niceties of our weather conditions until we go to live in another state. We are introduced to a whole host of tools and practices that human beings have developed to deal with weather events. Never have I appreciated a mud room as much as when I realized that for some parts of the world, a wet outdoors is par for the course during winter months. Same goes for finished basements and ice scrapers. It is often hard for us to appreciate the comfort and ease in which we live until we experience what it is like not to have it.

Jesus, of course, was under no such illusions before He came to this Earth. He was very familiar with the degraded conditions of this world. And He knew that things were not as they should be. Yet, in Heaven, they were. There was no want or deprivation. There was no sickness or despair. It was perfect. And yet He came to this world of imperfection so that we could more fully experience the comfort that comes from being His Father’s kids.

Perhaps no recorded episode in Jesus’ earthly live demonstrates this more powerfully than when He was led into the desert to be tempted. After 40 days of fasting, one of the allurements that Satan suggested was for him to turn the stones that surrounded Him into bread. For those of us familiar with this story, I don’t know if we adequately appreciate the appeal of the Deceiver in this moment. Jesus was fully human which means his body needed food. If you have ever been hungry for any length of time, you can imagine how uncomfortable He was. The call for sustenance had to be severe and He knew that He was able to do exactly what Satan proposed. He could have provided the comfort that His body cried out for, yet He didn’t because He knew to do so was, in this particular case, to demonstrate a lack of trust in His Heavenly Father. Prior to His descent to Earth, Christ had never experienced hunger and want, let alone any kind of discomfort. Yet, He was willing to lay aside the just-rightness of Heaven and to instead endure the hardship of Earth – complete with the physical demands that were placed on Him.

This was not the first example of the difference in comfort between Christ’s Heavenly home and His earthly one. After all, at his birth he was placed into a manger. And while I have never personally laid in a feeding trough, I can’t imagine that this was the most comfortable bed for a baby. The lack of comfort and ease continued throughout His life and culminated in enduring a gruesome death on the cross. Yet, Jesus willingly took on the human condition – complete with its aches, pains, and inconveniences. He set aside the comforts of Heaven to withstand the distress of this world. Not because of any benefit to Himself, but because He knew that in doing so, He would provide a path of redemption for us. He suffered the discomforts of this world, so that one day, we could experience the comfort of Heaven. He endured hardships here, so that we can share in His glory in His Kingdom to come.

Hebrews 4:15 teaches us that because Jesus walked this Earth, and because He shared in the human experience of being tempted, we can be confident that we have a Savior who sympathizes with our weaknesses. While we tend to sensationalize the nativity scene, let us not forget that for Christ, there was nothing sensational about living on this Earth. Nothing, that is, except the fact that it was a far departure from where He had come from and where He was going. Yet, he was willing to lay aside the comfort of his Heavenly Home and suffer the difficulties of this world so that we could know the joy of eternally walking with Him.