(1) The Descent to Greatness

You can read about it in fairy tales and novels. You can see it in cartoons and movies. But it just doesn’t happen in real life. Jasmine was drawn outside the palace walls to befriend a peasant boy. She dressed like Aladdin and mingled with the people in the market. She even got herself in trouble with the palace guard along with Aladdin. But that was simply Disney’s fantasy. This just doesn’t happen in real life. Princesses don’t do these kinds of things.

Mischief and mayhem followed when Young Prince Edward switched places with pauper Tom Canty in Mark Twain’s novel-made-movie The Prince and the Pauper. But this just doesn’t happen in real life. Princes don’t switch places with paupers.

Princesses and princes, kings and queens, presidents, celebrities. They all have something in common. They tend to stay away from, even be isolated and protected from us common folk. Oh, they’ll make occasional, brief appearances and even mingle a bit with us, but we know they aren’t eager to identify with us. We know they aren’t looking to be our friends or build a relationship with us. No, they’re elite. We’re just ordinary people. And they’re happy to keep it that way thank you very much.

Every once in a while, someone special comes along. They’re one of the elite, but they don’t act like it. They actually do want to intermingle. They actually do build relationships with the ordinary people. And they stand out. People take notice. They are unique, special.

Princess Diana was that kind of person. She was so approachable that she was called "the people’s princess." She gave everyone the feeling they could be her friend. She didn’t act like she was different or above others. She really did step out of the palace and intermingle with the common folk. In fact, in 1987 she was one of the first high-profile celebrities to be photographed touching one of the most "untouchables" of society at the time, a person infected with HIV. She was greatly admired. When she died, it was not just the people of England who mourned her death, but also, the people of the world. The gates of the formal and stately Buckingham Palace became merely a backdrop for the wreaths, flowers, stuffed animals, notes and other expressions of love and mourning. She stepped out of the palace, lived among the people, loved the people, befriended the people and deeply touched their lives. She was a fairy tale come to life.

But the greatest decent from greatness took place long before Mark Twain wrote The Prince and the Pauper. Long before Disney’s Aladdin. Long before England’ great princess. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God. Now the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. (John 1:1, 14) God came near. The greatest fairy tale of all time is reality. The creator stepped down into creation. The creator took on the nature of the creature. Eternal God stepped into time. The King of all creation entered into a dirty stable, born of a peasant woman and a simple carpenter. This just doesn’t happen.

But it did. God did come near. Jesus, the eternal Son of God became one of us. This is not a fairy tale. This is not the idea of a great novelist. This is truth. This is reality. This is not fiction. This is fact.

The Word became flesh

and took up residence among us.
John 1:14

Next: True Greatness