For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
A child is born, a son is given — the first half of that line is ordinary, something that happens every day. The second half is where it turns strange: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Those aren't titles you'd give an ordinary baby. Whoever wrote this was pointing at something that hadn't happened yet, claiming that the ordinary and the extraordinary would somehow arrive in the same small package.
It's worth sitting with how strange that combination actually is. Not a warrior-king arriving with an army, not a philosophy arriving in a book — a child. Government on the shoulders of someone small enough to be carried.
If part of what keeps you at a distance from faith is the sense that it should look more impressive, more obviously powerful, this verse doesn't cooperate with that expectation. It describes power showing up in the most vulnerable form available.
If you've assumed real power would announce itself loudly, it's worth considering why this verse describes it arriving so small.
A short video on this is coming soon — for now, read on.