The Incarnation

I'm not a noted theologian and I'm not terribly eloquent, but I wanted to share a few thoughts I have had this Christmas season. I have learned a few things about babies in the last two months. They are so helpless. They can't even hold up their heads. They can't see very well. They only way they can communicate is through crying and making noises. They are very humble creatures. They trust us SO much. Noah is never afraid that I'm going to drop him or not feed him or stop taking care of him. In light of this, I have been so overwhelmed with the incarnation this year. In our small group at church we have been reading A. W. Tozer's The Attributes of God. God is eternal, omnipresent, immutable, just, full of grace, wrath, and love. This very God that I worship put on flesh and became a tiny helpless baby for my sake. Unbelievable. He had to cry to get what he needed. He had to be held by two sinners to get where he needed to go. He had to learn how to talk. He stepped out of heaven where everyone was always telling him, "You are right. You are holy. You are perfect." and step into this wicked world where everyone told him, "You blaspheme. You are strange. You are wrong."

I've also been contemplating what it would have been like to be his mother. Knowing she would have a holy, perfect child, was she disappointed at his humanity? Did she understand the weight of the moment as she held him in his hands for the first time? Because she was so close and so intimately related to Him, did she ever doubt that he was actually the Messiah? I am so overwhelmed that Jesus was born in a manger. How did Mary handle that? Was she scared?

I love Noah so much. I can't stop kissing his cheeks. When he smiles at me I have joy like I've never had before. I think often about what he will be like when he gets older. I worry about him. I hope the best for him. I get nervous when he seems out of sorts and I make everyone put on hand sanitizer before they can hold him. I'm sure that Mary loved Jesus like this. I'm sure she gazed in his face while he nursed. I'm sure she laughed as he learned to walk and was proud when he learned from his dad how to build things for the home. It makes me cry to think that she had to see him suffer on the cross. Of everyone in Jesus' life on earth she was probably the most intimately acquainted with him and I would bet that she loved him in a way that no one else loved him. Then she had to watch him suffer so horrifically. If I had to watch Noah suffer in that way I think I would be vomiting. I would throw up and I would weep and I would try to get him out of the hands of those horrible people. She was called to something so difficult, and yet so blessed. She spent such precious time with the Savior of the world.

This year I am very thankful that Jesus willingly laid aside his power and clothed himself in humanity. I'm so thankful that He humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. The incarnation is such a breath-taking mystery.