Recently my small group started a study on a biodevotional called An Arrow Pointing to Heaven. It is a biography and devotional at the same time about a famous recording artist of the 1980s and 1990s by the name of Rich Mullins. His famous song “Awesome God” is still sung in churches around the world, and he toured with the likes of Amy Grant. He tragically entered eternity in 1999 when he was killed in a car wreck. We recently discussed the human side of Christ. For the ladies in my group, it was very challenging to think of Jesus as a young child or even as a teenager. It is easier to think of him lying still, in a manager, but there is something more difficult in thinking of him attending school, playing with his friends, and maybe giggling at girls. Most people see Jesus in one of two ways. They see him as someone who got thirsty, anxious, or angry but not necessarily progressing through the stages of life that humans go through. Others see him as the invincible, all-knowing, miracle-working God who never doubted, or ate, or felt. My question today is…How do you see Jesus? When we try to think about the incarnation, most of us at best feel ill-equipped to explain it. Many times God works in mysterious ways. Supernatural ways that blow our human minds out of the water. It is a paradox; it is irony. God has to smile at his creativity. Who would ever expect the savior of humanity to become enfleshed? To be a baby? The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords is lying in a feeding trough between an ox and a donkey and… crying. This does seem an odd way to save the world. However, we don’t want to miss his humanity. We need to relate to the human side of God. There is no greater sign of the love of God than the fact that he became one of us. When air filled his little lungs for the first time, the destruction of death and sin was about to begin. Everything that had separated man from God since the fall in the Garden was about to be reversed. This baby was going to renew the creation. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). Let’s see Jesus as the deliverer of the poor, but a disrupter of the peace; someone who loves yet is the strong lover who cuts through our pain and darkness; The man who walked on water yet calmed the sea; a miracle man with holes in his hands yet played with children and baffled the scholars of his time. Don’t let Jesus be ordinary this Easter season. Remember whatever is your idea of who Jesus was in his human form, he is so much more than that. The Bible tells us that God so loved the world, that he sent his only son, that through him, we might have eternal life (John 3:16). As you journey through life, keep in mind that He knows what it is like. He came so you could know true life and be with him forever.
Blessings,
Jessica
I think the fact that He truly knows what it is like and loves each of us enough to give up heaven and then die for us, is something we need to hang onto no matter the circumstances. It is so hard to wrap your mind around how unfathomable He actually is! Thanks for prompting these thoughts.