He was carried in the womb,
(cf Luke 1:31) but acknowledged by a prophet as yet unborn himself, who leaped for joy at the presence of the Word for whose sake he had been created.
(Luke 1:41) He was wrapped in swaddling bands,
(Luke 2:7,12) but at the Resurrection He unloosed the swaddling bands of the grave.
(cf John 20:6-7) He was laid in a manger,
(Luke 2:7,16) but was extolled by angles, disclosed by a star and adored by Magi.
(Matt 2:2,7,9-11) ... He was exiled into Egypt,
(Matt 2:13-14) but He banished the Egyptian idols, He had
"no form or beauty" (Isaiah 53:2) for the Jews, but for David He was,
"fairer that the children of men" (Ps 45:2) and on the mount He shines forth, becoming more luminous than the Sun,
(Matt 17:2) to reveal the future mystery.
+St. Gregory the Theologian, from 29th Theological Oration, #19, in On God and Christ: The Five Theological Orations and Two Letters to Cledonius.
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