The story of Jesus begins with an angel. An angel meets the Jewish priest Zechariah. Then he meets Mary and in a dream an angel meets Joseph.

There are many coded statements in the angels’ messages.

When the angel announced to Mary that she would have a child as a virgin, the angel assumed biblical knowledge. Mary is not a naive young woman; she knows the meaning of the individual words.

When Sarah, Abraham’s wife, gave birth to a child at the age of 90, God, like the angel to Mary, literally said: ‘No word that comes from God will be without power’ (Genesis 18:14).

It is a reference to the amazing story in Genesis 18, when God appeared to Abraham in human form. There we are told a radical depiction of God’s incarnation: He eats the food that Abraham prepared. This is therefore not a spiritual appearance, but a tangible human being.

If God could become man back then, then he can also limit himself and come into this world in a child. In Jesus, God reveals himself to us in a tangible way.