Incarnation!
We say it, teach it, and believe it.
How deeply do we search it? Understand it? Cherish it?
Incarnation. God in flesh!
God-man a baby,
Spirit conceived and virgin born
Deity-humanity, a being divinely coupled.
The eternal One entering into time, finite space, recorded history.
The Omnipotent becoming subject to human limitations and vulnerability:pain, fatigue, temptation, rejection.
God-man knowing hunger, fear, dependency, misunderstanding, and abandonment
Christ-Jesus choosing to live in part by social structure
and cultural cues,
Living in human relationships while still relating with His
Heavenly Father,
But knowing always the short road before Him--the ultimate human end.
He became God-Man for what?
Took flesh for what purpose?
What earthly reason or heavenly plan?
The question is human, the answer divine.
The answer for all humanity was God’s plan of Incarnation.
Not just for us--our private culture or particular brand of religion
The God-Man became for all beings in all times
He couples us to Himself and to each other.
As God-Man He knows our frail flesh, our fragile egos
He identifies with our life burdens
He offers healing and peace for broken beings in a broken world
And shares the joys of human victory and celebration.
Incarnation is the answer to our problem of personal sin and mortal condition.
It makes our violent or polite dividing lines lose reality.
It comes to us as fact and mystery.
It is the hope and the reality of our faith and life.