JOURNEY
TO A GARBAGE DUMP

Topics: Christmas; Humility; Incarnation; Jesus Christ; Missions; Sacrifice

References: John 1:14; Philippians 2:5–8

Several years ago, I was visiting Manila and was taken, of all places, to the Manila garbage dump. Tens of thousands of people make their homes on that dump site. They have constructed shacks out of the things other people have thrown away. And they send their children out early every morning to scavenge for food in other people’s garbage so they can have family meals.

People have been born and raised on the garbage dump. They have had their families and died there without ever going anywhere else, even in the city of Manila. It is an astonishing thing.

But Americans also live on that garbage dump. They are missionaries who have chosen to leave their own country to communicate the love of Jesus Christ to people who otherwise would never hear it. That is amazing, but not as amazing as the journey our Savior made from heaven to earth. The Son of God knew what he was doing. He knew where he was going. He knew what the sacrifice would be. He journeyed from heaven to earth on a mission to save the human race.

—Leith Anderson, “A God’s-Eye View of Christmas,” Preaching Today Audio, no. 208