I first heard of him from my mother, and what she said of him made him sound like the most amazing of individuals. Little did I realize that the entire world knew of him, and that he was even more wonderful than I could possibly comprehend.
She said his name was Jesus.
As I grew, I grew in my knowledge of him, and every new thing I learned only added to the wonder. There truly is no one quite like him. Fully God, yet fully man, entirely holy, yet so very loving that he gave his own life for the most wretched and vile of sinners.
Virgin born, not into wealth, but into voluntary poverty. A simple carpenter, yes, but also a master architect, the designer and builder of heaven and earth. Hailing from humble Nazareth by way of heaven, born in a manger by way of the throne of God.
Without a pulpit, thousands flocked to hear him preach, and none of his words were ever forgotten. He preached fiery messages scathing sin personal, sin national and sin ecclesiastical, yet sinners were so convinced of his love for them that they flocked to his feet. Children adored him; commoners worshipped him; entrepreneurs forsook lucrative careers for him, and men steeped in thousands of years of rigid tradition gladly accepted each new thing he introduced.