Blown Away by the Incarnation

On December 1, we received a wonderful Christmas gift—our first grandchild. I was blessed to visit the family for eight great days, including lots of time loving on her. Because of her birth’s proximity to Christmas, I often thought of the baby in the manger when I held her, and my mind was blown away by the truth of the incarnation.

How can God become a baby? How could he remain God and yet be totally dependent and helpless? How did Jesus grow in wisdom and knowledge like other children when he is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end? How can the Creator be enclosed in a created body?

I am thankful that faith doesn’t rest upon logical understanding. Such knowledge is impossible to grasp with our limited thinking abilities. To embrace the mystery of the incarnation I must rely upon the observations of those who saw and knew Jesus when he was on the earth—those who recognized him as truly God and truly man. They didn’t totally understand it either, but they believed it nevertheless because they were overwhelmed by the evidence.

·         John called Jesus the Word who was God (John 1:1).

·         Peter said, “We did not follow cleverly concocted fables when we made known to you the power and return of our Lord Jesus Christ; no, we were eyewitnesses of his grandeur (2 Pet. 1:16).

·         Upon seeing the resurrected Christ, Thomas exclaimed, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28).

Paul, who also encountered the resurrected Jesus, explained the incarnation this way: “Though he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave, by looking like other men, and by sharing in human nature” (Phil. 2:6-7, NET).

The truth is impossible to comprehend logically; it can only be accepted when we realize that our understanding is limited as human beings. Just as my dogs can’t grasp most of my words, I can only understand in part a God who is beyond me.

I urge you to join me in taking time this Christmas to consider the dependent baby in the manger and his identity as God himself who chose to come to earth and become one of us in order to rescue the world from its sin and helplessness.