Adore the Incarnated One

This is Part One of our 2025 Advent series. (You can find the other parts here: Two. Three. Four.)

When I was putting together Joyfully Sing, this was one verse that presented me with some challenges when I considered which Bible verses to link to the song. There is so much good truth about the incarnation crammed into these three lines!

Should we dwell on Jesus’ Word-ness?

John 1:1:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:14:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Should we consider his oneness with the Father?

Hebrews 1:1-3:

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

Or should we land on the fact that Jesus put on flesh?

Colossians 1:19-20:

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

And truthfully, that is the glory of the incarnation: there is so much goodness wrapped up in it, but we don’t have to pick. All of these things are true at once:

Jesus was God AND the Word of God AND a human baby. Eventually, he would be a human man who would go to Jerusalem to die for his people. Indeed, there is so much here that the human mind cannot fully grasp; any attempts to do so inevitably lead to misconceptions and oversimplifications. It is, in the end, a mystery. We are best to leave it at that.

The specific nature of the birth of Christ is mind-boggling: it was on a certain day, in a certain town, to a certain pair of people. These details were exercised perfectly, in keeping with the eternal nature and plan of a sovereign God. On this side of the curtain, we can say it was a comedy of errors: the parents aren’t married when she is discovered to be pregnant?! The inn has no room for them?! The baby’s identity makes him a target of the most powerful man in the region?! Surely this cannot be by design.

And yet, all of those things mean he has entered into our brokenness and chaos perfectly. Jesus bursts onto the scene, fully partaking in suffering from day one of his life. He subjects himself to the curse, to man’s cruelty to one another, and to isolation from the very beginning. All of this, without sin. All of this, for those who were lost and without hope.

Why would we remain far off? Truly, this is enough reason to come, let us adore him.

• Author
• Recent Posts

Kelly Keller

Kelly Keller is the managing editor of Story Warren. She has her BS in Elementary Education from Messiah University and has taught various ages, but her favorite was worldview and literature with high school students. The “gap” in her resume is actually a window of eighteen years of homeschooling, which she recommends as an effective, though demanding, way of expanding one’s home library.

When she’s not behind her laptop, Kelly enjoys live music, baseball, reading great books, and traveling with her husband, David. Kelly hails from beautiful snowy New England, but after nearly two decades in North Carolina, she feels right at home.

She invites you to subscribe to her newsletter, On the Common, or to follow her on Twitter or Instagram.

Latest posts by Kelly Keller (see all)

• Story Warren Weekend, Vol. 14, Issue 2 - January 17, 2026
• A Dogged Determination to be Faithful - January 16, 2026
• Noisy January - January 12, 2026