Here’s a little encouragement for each enneagram type and and and explanation of how you remind me of a part of the Christmas story. ✨ Merry Christmas, everyone!

TYPE ONE: REDEMPTION

You see the possibilities of the good that can come out of the chaos. In your healthiest seasons, you’re a driver of change motivated by redemption.

Jesus’s birth was our invitation into the greatest plot twist ever told. In the middle of chaos, baby Jesus—Prince of Peace— was born and the weary world rejoiced. His first cry, our thrill of hope, initiated the re-writing of eternity and the redemption of our story.

She will bear a son, and you will call him Jesus because he will rescue his people from their sins. -Matthew 1:21

TYPE TWO: LOVE

You love generously and selflessly. When you’re able to get past your fear of being unwanted, you’re a deep well of affirmation and kindness that makes others believe they’re worthy of love without seeking anything in return.

Christmas is a celebration of the most costly gift we’ve ever been given; not because we’re deserving, but because God is the perfected version of generous love. For generations before Jesus’s birth, the Israelites awaited a powerful King, but didn’t expect he’d govern with grace and lead with love. The birth of Jesus cost everything for him (leaving his perfected heavenly throne) and is offered to us for free; all so we might believe we’re worthy of extravagant love.

This is how much God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. -John 3:16-17

TYPE THREE: GLORY

People look to you to lead them because they trust you’ll do it with honor. You are a natural visionary and victor; and when you’re healthiest, you reflect the glory of God and shine it on others.

God is glorious and demands glory. He is the most high, the messiah, the alpha and omega. In Luke 2, the glory of God shone throughout the fields and invited the shepherds who were watching over their sheep into His story. Christmas is the magnificence of God’s majesty. Christmas is the very glory of God’s glory!

Christ whose glory fills the skies; Christ the everlasting light; Son of Righteousness arise triumph over these shades of night. -Advent Hymn, Christy Nockels

TYPE FOUR: INTENTION

You live with purpose and intention because you see life through a lens that others just can’t and feel emotions that don’t have names. At your best, you see the beauty more than the broken and you let your feelings take up space without taking over who you are.

The Christmas story is wildly creative and intentional. Kings and shepherds surrounded Jesus at his birth, as though God was letting us know that all social circles had a place around him. Mary and Joseph gave birth to Jesus in a manger while they were traveling in Bethlehem; and in the midst of this temporary dwelling, an invitation to our eternal home was born. The intricacies all point to an intentional God who authored the entire story and wrote it in a way that can’t be ignored.

You can see my promise even in the winter ‘cause You’re the God of greatness even in a manger. For all I know of seasons is that You take Your time. You could have saved us in a second; instead You sent a child. -Seasons, Hillsong

TYPE FIVE: WONDER

You are naturally curious, which motivates you to investigate new ideas and gather up information. When you’re healthiest, you trust friends + family with your space and are excited to share with them your wealth of knowledge.

There’s no story marked by wonder like the first Noel. A virgin giving birth to the son of God; a heavenly host of angels sending invitations to shepherds in a field; a long-awaited King ushering in his Kingdom in a barn. I hope we never become numb to how absolutely wild it is or take for granted that it’s part of our story, too.

Oh the mystery who could fathom God would leave his Holy throne for a manger, for a sinner, for us all to be his own. -This is Jesus, We Are Messengers

TYPE SIX: COMFORT

You make people feel safe because they trust you. You deeply care about authenticity, and at your best you use it to remind people of your loyalty and their worth.

Emmanuel means God with us. For hundreds of years, prophets foretold a savior King, a Messiah, a leader who would restore the nation of Israel. A baby born in a dark barn isn’t what we dream up when thinking of comforting Christmas scenes, and it probably wasn’t what the Israelites dreamed up when they envisioned their Messiah King. But, this baby— Emmanuel— is the comfort we’re all longing for and the savior they all waited for.

Long lay the world in sin and error pining ‘til he appeared and the soul felt its worth. -Oh Holy Night

TYPE SEVEN: JOY

You are full of contagious joy that makes other people more free to be themselves. When you’re healthiest, your joy isn’t a mask used to ignore emotional pain, but a genuine outward expression of the spirit inside of you.

The shepherds and kings followed stars and calls of angels to meet this long awaited baby in Bethlehem. Talk about a spontaneous trip. But in their willingness to drop everything and go, they had an up-close encounter with God in the flesh. Can you imagine the celebration that must have ensued after Mary gave birth? Horses neighing, shepherds cheering, wise men crying. Jesus: the true and best jubilee – joy has arrived and is offered to us all!

But the angel said to him, “fear not, for I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” -Luke 2:10

TYPE EIGHT: HOPE

You have a heart that longs for restoration and hope. When you’re healthiest, this manifests its way into a posture of vulnerability. You can care for the people you love and be free of a perceived need to protect yourself from appearing weak or needy.

Long before Jesus entered the scene while the Israelites hoped for a reconciler, they practiced animal sacrifice in order to atone their sins and make right with a perfect God. Before sheep were sent to the temple to be killed, their feet would be covered in scraps of cloth in order to not get muddy on the walk + track mud into the temple. It’s no coincidence that Jesus was wrapped in the same scraps of cloth when he was born while shepherds looked over him. Jesus— the lamb of God— is our greatest hope and our final atonement!

Christmas means not just hope for the world, despite all its unending problems, but hope for you and me, despite all our unending failings. -Tim Keller

TYPE NINE: PEACE

For the people you love, you are the safe place in a crowded room. At your best, you are able to create deep connections without fear of future rejection or dissension in the relationship.

Christmas is the ushering in of peace on earth. Micah, a prophet, told of a baby who would be born from the clan of Judah in Bethlehem 700 years before Jesus’s birth. Micah claimed this baby would be different; he prophesied that “he will be our peace” (Micah 5:5). In Luke 2, a choir of angels appears to shepherds to let them know that the time is now: the baby who Micah talked about is here and he brings “peace on earth to all who know him.” When Jesus was born he was crowned Prince of Peace, and that’s the Christmas gospel.

And his people will dwell secure, for he will be great to the ends of the earth. And he will be their peace. -Micah 5:5