God with us means more than God over or side by side with us, before or behind us. It means more than His divine being in even the most intimate active connection with our human being otherwise peculiar to Him. At this point, at the heart of the Christian message and in relation to the event of which it speaks, it means that God has made himself the one who fulfills his redemptive will. It means that He Himself in His own person at His own cost but also on His own initiative has become the inconceivable Yet and Nevertheless of this event, and so its clear and well-founded and legitimate, its true and holy and righteous Therefore. It means that God has become man in order as such, but in divine sovereignty, to take up our case. What takes place in the work of inconceivable mercy is, therefore, the free overruling of God, but it is not an arbitrary overlooking and ignoring, not an artificial bridging, covering over or hiding, but a real closing of the breach, gulf and abyss between God and us for which we are responsible. At the very point where we refuse and fail, offending and provoking God, making ourselves impossible before Him and in that way missing our destiny, treading under foot our dignity, forfeiting our right, losing our salvation and hopelessly compromising our creaturely being at that very point God Himself intervenes as man.

—Church Dogmatics (IV.1) [E.T. By Geoffrey Bromiley and Thomas Torrance of the German Original] (London: T and T Clark, 1956), page 12

Nativity, 1792
Benjamin West pic.twitter.com/18q4DyMTKU

— Juan NAVARRO (@jnavarrosimon) December 20, 2024

And because of His visitation, we may no longer desire God as if He were lacking: our redemption is no longer a question of pursuit but of surrender to Him who is always and everywhere present. Therefore at every moment we pray that, following Him, we may depart from our anxiety into His peace.

–From Simeon in the Christmas Oratorio

Philippe de Champaigne, The Adoration of the Shepherds, ca.1640 pic.twitter.com/LatSDghLD3

— Solas (@solas_na_greine) December 12, 2025

Listen to it all. A reminder of the English translation of the words:

O great mystery,
and wonderful sacrament,
that animals should see the new-born Lord,
lying in a manger!
Blessed is the Virgin whose womb
was worthy to bear
Christ the Lord.
Alleluia!

Man’s maker was made man,
that He, Ruler of the stars, might nurse at His mother’s breast;
that the Bread might hunger,
the Fountain thirst,
the Light sleep,
the Way be tired on its journey;
that the Truth might be accused of false witness,
the Teacher be beaten with whips,
the Foundation be suspended on wood;
that Strength might grow weak;
that the Healer might be wounded;
that Life might die.

– Augustine of Hippo (Sermons 191.1)

Guido Lanfranco’s ‘Midnight Mass for Christmas’ invites us into one of Malta’s most cherished festive rituals. The artist’s brushstrokes capture the soft glow of candles, the hush of village churches, and the community gathering in hopeful celebration. pic.twitter.com/U7AQkxanSR

— Heritage Malta (@heritagemalta) December 24, 2025

Almighty God, who didst rescue Samuel Ajayi Crowther from slavery, sent him to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ to his people in Nigeria, and made him the first bishop from the people of West Africa: Grant that those who follow in his steps may reap what he has sown and find abundant help for the harvest; through him who took upon himself the form of a slave that we might be free, the same Jesus Christ; who livest and reignest with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The first book in the Igbo language (Isoama-Ibo: A Primer) was written by a Yoruba man, Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther (1809-1891) in 1857.

In the mid-19th century, Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther, a Yoruba linguist and the first African Anglican bishop, played a key role in pic.twitter.com/KQWWCiPZov

— Africanism Culture (@imakun122) November 15, 2025

Merciful and most loving God, by whose will and bountiful gift thine eternal Son humbled himself that he might exalt mankind, and became flesh that he might renew in us the divine image: Perfect us in thy likeness, and bring us at last to rejoice in beholding thy beauty, and, with all thy saints, to glorify thy grace; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

—Prayers for the Christian Year (SCM, 1964)

A diagram of the interlocking seasons: the year is turning

BL Harley MS 4940; Matfre Ermengaud's Breviari d'amor; 14th century; France (Toulouse?); f.48r@BLMedieval pic.twitter.com/rcKmioPw61

— Ennius (@red_loeb) December 30, 2025

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult.

–Psalm 46:1-3

Today is New Years Eve, and the Seventh Day of Christmas. Swans then, in 20c glass, mostly flying rather than swimming, by Horace Wilkinson at Paston, Norfolk and by Francis Skeat at Peakirk, Cambridgeshire.#12DaysOfChristmas pic.twitter.com/A83RQH5vNM

— Simon Knott (@SimoninSuffolk) December 31, 2023