The Incarnation: Part 1

I am a Christian because of the incarnation of Christ. It is the willingness of God to meet humanity on humanity's terms that repeatedly draws me deeper into the Christian faith. It is my fundamental belief that God through Jesus redeems us, but it does not simply stop there. Being showered with the love and grace of God that willing took on human form and died on a cross, I feel it is my calling to share with the world the same love and grace with my very life. Simply put, I am called to embody or to incarnate the same sacrificial love that I have received. This act of embodiment or incarnation is a messy affair. When love takes on human form all bets go out the window - black and white quickly become grey. I am deeply committed to orthodox Christianity as expressed through the Nicene or Apostles' Creeds, but I am equally committed to the realization that love in practice is tragically and beautifully sloppy. How extravagant to be loved by a God who condescended to be born a baby and how utterly fragile and fraught with complication. To say that I follow Jesus, is to say that I follow a God who walked through poverty, homelessness, marginalization, oppression, and injustice. It is to say that I follow a God betrayed and murdered by the ones he came to save. What could be messier? What could be more transformational?