For parents caring for a newborn child, leaving the house can become a major undertaking. How can it be that a person so small—that you can carry in one arm—would require 100 pounds of accessories when you leave the home: car seats, portable cribs, highchairs, toys, food, diapers…and something else you probably forgot to pack?

What Christmas does is present to us another child: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given” (Isaiah 9:6). But the difference is, he wasn’t born for us to carry him. He was born to carry us. He wasn’t born so we could carry all of his baggage. He was born so that he could carry the weight of the world on his shoulders and to raise us up. This is God’s deliverance for his people that is going to come. And it comes in the strangest way—not in the strength of an army, but in the humility of a child. And of course, hundreds of years later, this child was born. 

But he is a child like no other! In Isaiah 9:6, we see all of these names given to Jesus: “He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

First, he is wonderful counselor. Many of us have benefited—myself included—from the service and wisdom of counselors. Counselors are there to help us see the world accurately—from a more healthy, life-giving, and true point of view. Christ came into the world to fulfill that role. He comes to open our eyes to the reality of everything that we can’t see by ourselves: that there is a God who created us and loves us; that because of sin we are living in darkness; but that he came to be the light and to lead us back to God through faith in him. As our wonderful counselor, he comes and opens our eyes to God’s story and our place in it. 

But not only that, he is Mighty God. This child to be born isn’t just a fellow sufferer with us. This child is God himself. The maker of heaven and earth is the one who has come to meet us and save us!

He is also Everlasting Father. What Isaiah means by “Father” is that he is a protector of his people. This is the role of the ideal king and is also the way God himself cares for his people. So, Isaiah is not using the Trinitarian title “Father” for Jesus. Rather, he’s portraying him as the “father of his people”—a good king who shepherds his people. 

Finally, he’s also the Prince of Peace. This title reminds us that this child will bring about a peace that will last forever. You can take the weapons of war and throw them in a trash heap and burn them because he brings and establishes a peace like no other. 

Isaiah tells us that in order to save us, God has given us his Son, Jesus. At Christmas we celebrate the joyful reality that God came into the world to save his people. Jesus is the “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”  A Son was given. This Christmas, would you receive this gift—and rejoice!