Ancient of Days

This is taken from the advent devotion that Desiring God published titled Good News of Great Joy. This is a great advent devotional that our family used leading into Christmas.

"The uniqueness of his birth is that he did not originate at his birth. He existed before he was born in a manger. The personhood, the character, the personality of Jesus of Nazareth existed before the man Jesus of Nazareth was born. The theological word to describe this mystery is not creation, but incarnation. The person—not the body, but the essential personhood of Jesus—existed before he was born as man. His birth was not a coming into being of a new person, but a coming into the world of an infinitely old person. Micah 5:2 puts it like this, 700 years before Jesus was born: But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. The mystery of the birth of Jesus is not merely that he was born of a virgin. That miracle was intended by God to witnessto an even greater one—namely, that the child born at Christmas was a person who existed “from of old, from ancient days.” (Piper, 42)