And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and turth.
-- John 1: 14
“It all happened in a moment,” writes Max Lucado, “ a most remarkable moment. … That was like none other … God became man.” (1) The enormity of that has always confounded me. God, larger that God’s creation, more profound than our deepest collective thoughts, unencumbered by time, this Deity, became just like me.
Can we ever fully grasp the significance of that?
The Infant Incarnate suckling at a human breast. The Toddler Trinity stumbling through his first steps. The Adolescent All-knowing popping a pimple. The Mature Almighty with an aching back.
He had a heart that was charged by adrenaline when someone sneaked up behind and cried, “Boo!” That same heart was capable of a flutter when a pretty girl walked by. It was a human heart that could feel the pain of loneliness, being misunderstood, betrayed.
God was like us. God felt our feelings. God walked in human steps with blisters on God’s feet. Sweat beaded upon God’s forehead. God worked for a living, a carpenter with callused hands and blue-black hammer-struck thumb nails.
God watched God’s neighbors as they went about their business. God may well have shaken God’s head in wonderment at their humanness.
God went to synagogue. God sat listening to dull teachers of scripture as we sit listening to homilies of boring preachers. Did God smile at the limit of their theological grasp? Did God have to stifle the impulse to stand and proclaim, “Hold on! It’s not like that at all.”
God dreamed dreams as we. God once dreamed of ruling over kingdoms. God deserved it. God turned the dread down.
We dream of doing good things if we won the lottery. God dreamed of filling the bellies of the hungry. God had the power. God decided to not command loyalty with magic tricks. God, in god’s humanness, reached out to establish an eternal kingdom, to feed the soul.
God became human, filled with all the frustrations that wrap that package. God became impatient with people, especially their slowness to catch on, so impatient God called one of his own “the devil.” God knew the pain of dealing with those who settle for the expedient.
Think about it. God had to get up and go to work. god had to sit abou the table with some really dull people. God was forced to deal with other’s jealousies. god had to learn how difficult patience is to practice.
God was human!
May this be the Advent God’s humanness speaks to your living.
1. Lucado, Max, God Came Near, Multnomah Press, 1986, p. 25.
From Heaven Came Down, Meditations On Advent, Guy Kent, Copyright 1997 by Guy Kent, Morris Press.
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