INCARNATION - the most unique thing to happen since creation!  No other religious or philosophical system dares suggest that the Creator of the universe would literally become a human being.  Yet it is the centerpiece of Christianity.

The "enfleshing" of God in Jesus of Nazareth is a phenomenon without equal in the history of the world.  Who would have thought or imagined that the Lord of all creation would become part of the creation in order to reveal what truth is really all about?

Jesus was the 200% being - completely human yet completely divine.  Our earth bound minds cannot comprehend this mystery.  No human could have dreamed up this one.  No religion would invent what would otherwise be a wild and crazy notion that God would come and live among us - "God with skin on His face."

"He is the image of the of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation . . . For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to Himself all things . . . by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross." [Colossians 1:15-20]

What a paradox!  What a mystery!  What a magnificent puzzle!  There is no analogy or experience we know that can adequately communicate the sheer splendor of the central truth of the Christian faith.

We are no longer left on our own to speculate about God's nature.  We can begin to see - even dimly - the love that God must have, that He would "come all the way downstairs" from heaven to offer a personal relationship with each of us.  We don't have to be afraid of a God who would so lovingly pursue us.  A God who would so personally care that He would come into our world just to let us know in terms we can understand.

The Incarnation of God in Jesus helps me answer the twin bladed questions of "Who is God?" and "What is real?"  As I take a long, hard look at Jesus I can begin to sense more clearly who God is.  And I can even begin to understand who I am meant to be.  I can find in Jesus a yardstick to get a straight measure of what is often a distorted and confusing world.  And I don't have to become a philosopher to start understanding the essence of the Christian faith.

Jesus is the starting point and the ending point for all of creation.   He is also the "stillpoint in a turning world."  Jesus is the ultimate, personal truth of God I hold near and dear.  How about you? 

 
• If you were raised with the notion that God was a distant, impersonal deity you had appease with good deeds, how does Jesus break that system of belief for you? 
• As you think about your concept of God, how have you been influenced by Jesus? 
• How does focusing on Jesus clarify your personal faith, or make it confusing? 
• If Jesus is literally God, and the Holy Spirit is His ongoing presence in the world, how does this truth impact the way you live daily?