And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14
In the stillness of a great void, the unsearchable, unthinkable, unmistakably God-work happens. The Creator becomes a part of His creation. The hope of redemption is born. The God who spoke the world into existence, speaks now in a baby’s cry. And our salvation has come for He is ‘Emmanuel–God with us.’
It’s exquisitely beautiful; gorgeous. This is the most fabulous and unimaginable feat. It’s taking God in all His glory and making Him frail and unspeakably vulnerable. It’s the will of Heaven and the work of God Himself to become one of us.
It’s a beautiful story. And because he comes immaculately, perfectly, He can one day give his life as a perfect sacrifice. We can all receive the gift and come fully home to God. Forever. The fact that God becomes flesh is everything to us.
But what about right here, right now? How does the truth of Creator becoming human help us on this long road home? How does it give us hope when the wrenching trials, the heartbreak, the devastation come?
Or in my on-going journey with mental illness, how does a God intimate with human weakness change things? How does this give me hope where I am living today? How does it give you hope in your current reality?
Hebrews says,’He was tempted and tried, yet without sin.’ Through this truth, Jesus understanding this road in every way, I can take the agonizing struggles of mind which have led me to the hospital more than once and know ‘yes, you are here.’ He is the one who walks alongside me and looks in my eyes to offer the comfort of his love. And he is the one who suffered the human weakness and mental torture I have. There is no distance between him and I. He is God made flesh so he can understand everything, everything, I experience.
And the shame? When I think of the sting of mental illness, though there is the struggle to lead a ‘normal’ life, the most painful is the deep-seeded shame. It clings like a dark mist which threatens to absorb all I am. It judges others’ reactions as I share vulnerably. It keeps me down in my faltering attempts to rise.
But the Word became flesh and lived it all. All of our shame was laid on him upon a cross–it is true. But in those 33 or so years he lived and walked this earth, it followed him too. Illegitimate child or at least ‘conceived in sin’. Lowly, uneducated carpenter. Mired by unsavory company. Less than all a righteous man should be. He suffered the shame of a world seasoned by judgment and self-righteousness, ready to pounce on the least of these. And in this world, in his life, this is so often who Jesus was.
So, in my shame he is most definitely there. He comes into it and transcends it. He shows me how to live as his victory destroys it.
This breathtaking intimacy full of understanding is all because He became flesh and lived a life. It’s because he went through ALL of my struggles as he walked this earth. He entered the heart, the core, of human struggle. He absorbed the fear, doubt, worry and pain. He said ‘no more’ to them all as his very life, culminating in his death and resurrection, defeated them once and for all.
But, in this verse we see both the fragile and the magnificent. He comes frail in the flesh. Yet He lives displaying the glory of the God he is, full of grace and truth. He promises to take us in our own vulnerability so we too may display the glory of God. So we too may become the overcomers who are full of God’s grace and God’s truth. ,
It changes everything. How we walk this road. Every moment can be an intimate knowing of the boundless heart of God, giving up all of His glory in Heaven to become the weakness of all humanity. There’s nothing which the reality of God in flesh can’t enter. No depth of emotional, physical, mental or spiritual darkness which he cannot inhabit as one who knows, thus making his light to shine out of it.
Beloved, he is here. This Christmas, in your secret heart and soul places, may you know Him as the one who dwells within, going before you in all things. Because He has. Receive this as your true gift and unwrap it with all of your heart.
