11to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 

12This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’ 13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
14 ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven,
   and on earth peace among those whom he favours!’

Why do I need a “Saviour”? From what do I need to be “saved”?

I am created in the “image” and “likeness” of God. Jesus embodied all that this “image” means. He shows the fullness of what it is to be truly human. Jesus is reported to have said, “I came that you may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).

The abundant life of Jesus is a life that is steady and strong, deeply grounded and rooted in a true sense of genuine identity. It is a life that has no need for external supports to shore up its little ego projects. To live “abundantly” is to live freely.

True freedom is not freedom to do anything I want, but freedom to live as the loving, whole, integrated person I was created to be.

Sadly, I know that every day I fall short of this “image” in which I was created. There is something in me that tends away from my true nature, some force that drags me down to a level lower than the exulted heights I was designed to scale.

I need to be “saved” from that small ordinary part of myself that lives as something less than the luminous being of love I truly am. I need to be saved from the frightened protective part of myself that builds walls and seeks shelter and security by erecting a fortress against the uneasy insecurity from which I seek to flee.

When I am saved from this diminished version of my true self, I become able to join “the heavenly host, praising God”. This is the place where I discover the “peace” that this magical season promises and come to see myself as one who is truly “favoured” by the glorious miracle of life. There is nothing more for which my heart longs. To rest and trust in God’s favour is the ultimate gift of this “child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger”. His purity and innocence point the way for me to recover my sense of connection with that being that is my true self.

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Today I will watch for those ways in which I feel tempted to live as less than the luminous reality that is my true nature and seek to open to the truer reality of who I am.