Now consider a very different kind of rescue mission: a tiny baby, born to an unassuming teenage girl and her husband, in a barn outside a small town that no one would consider a prime vacation spot. And let’s add this: the teenage girl, Mary, is rumored to be carrying a child divinely conceived—a baby named Jesus, prophesied to be the Savior of the world. A tiny baby sent to save the world? Really? Hold that thought as well.
I have reflected on this Christmas story throughout my adult life—the one where shepherds are out in the fields tending their flocks, doing what they always do. Then suddenly, their ordinary evening conversations are interrupted as an angel appears and announces the birth of a Savior: “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10–11). Talk about a divine plot twist.
The angel directs the shepherds to find a baby “wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger,” and immediately after, a multitude of angels appear, praising God. Can you imagine the conversations that followed when the shepherds went home? “Honey, you’re never going to believe what happened tonight…” It must have sounded unbelievable—yet it was wonderfully true. And it was all part of a well-planned, beautifully orchestrated story that had been prophetically whispered hundreds of times before. It was a rescue mission—of the divine kind.
Fast forward. This baby, born in humble surroundings to a humble couple in a tiny, unremarkable town, was the One sent. He alone could fulfill the divine mandate: to be the Savior of the world. Why? Because we needed Someone far greater than ourselves to rescue us. Not by military force. Not by any conventional means we might design. We were to be rescued by the purest and most perfect form of love—the sacrificial kind, the kind we humans struggle to embody.
This baby would be named Jesus by His earthly parents, following an angelic message given to His young mother. Jesus would spend 30 years living among us (“Emmanuel”—God with us), fully human in so many ways but unlike us in one crucial respect: He was without blemish or sin. This divine rescue mission began long before that fateful moment when humanity trusted itself more than its Creator. God’s plan of salvation was conceived even before He breathed life into the first man, Adam. God knew we would choose our own way—and yet, from the deepest places of His heart, He still desired to create us and give us the power to choose: to trust Him, or not. A gift as sharp and weighty as a double-edged sword.
A rescue mission of the divine kind. If a human were writing the ultimate rescue story, he would surely place himself at the center—as the hero. But one of the most compelling aspects of the Christmas and Easter stories is this: humanity is not the rescuer. Humanity is the one in need of rescue. We are not the heroes; in fact, we often behave more like the villains.
As Christmas draws near, I encourage you to think about Jesus in a deeply personal way. The baby at the center of the Christmas story was sent to rescue us. He is the Rescuer. We are His mission. There is nothing we can do to assist Him; in fact, His hands bear the scars of the mission already completed. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
Do you need to be rescued this Christmas?