The Letter to the Hebrews proclaims that the Son of God is "the radiant light of God's glory and the perfect copy of his nature". We should not read too much meaning into the words as if there was such a difference between "light" and "glory" or between "copy" and "nature" as to doubt Jesus' divinity. It took the Church some centuries of prayer and thought, grounded in their experience of the accompaniment of Jesus as risen Lord, with them as forever as "Emmanuel" and with them also through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Since Scripture was written in a specific age, before the Church's great Councils, some of the ways in which the writers sought to affirm Jesus' divinity may seem a little inadequate to us, but the totality of Scripture leaves us in no doubt about the matter. This certainty is the basis of the beautiful Prologue of the Gospel according to St John, and of acclamations of faith such as Paul's "Jesus is Lord" (Phil 2:11) or Thomas' "My Lord and my God" on seeing the risen Jesus (John 20:28).

The simple acclamations of Paul and Thomas provide us with most suitable prayers of adoration as we pray before the crib.