Likeness is Knowledge
By: Scott Tolhurst
God was once your size. He was as small as you have ever been. The vastness of infinity was tucked into the confines of our physical frame. God was small enough to be seen in His wholeness. He was reduced to a size that could be carried. His greatness shrank to embryonic proportions. That is the Christmas truth and miracle of the Incarnation. The mystery of what God has done in Jesus is not easily fathomed. There are more questions than answers. Wonder exceeds explanation. I risk the danger of sounding sermonic - but three truths confront me (and delight me) from the little I comprehend of the Incarnation.
God was willing to be limited in Jesus. Stretchable language is used to describe our Lord. He is Boundless, Infinite, Eternal, Being without borders, filling and surpassing whatever elastic words we use. God has no parameters in His essence, power, presence, wisdom or grace. Largeness speech has to be used about God - until the Incarnation. Now God has a time frame of birth to death. He is hemmed by humanity. Jesus bore confines that we all take for granted. But for God, this was an act of grace that made Him approachable. Falling in fear before an immense overwhelming God can be found in the Old Testament. But it didn’t happen to Jesus. People drew near to Jesus, perhaps because He was their size.
God was willing to grow. Perfection cannot be improved. God has no need or space for growth. But, Luke says Jesus grew in stature and in wisdom (Luke 2:40). Even more, obedience was something to be learned (Hebrews 5:8). Jesus had to ask questions. He learned from errors He made in the carpentry shop. He tripped and fell navigating first steps. God grew in this life and grew in ways that are familiar to all of us. Don’t assume His growth was easy. While He was sinless, that doesn’t suggest His development was effortless. God became small and then matured into wisdom, strength, social and spiritual graces. That leads to my third delight.
God is empathetic. God has always known what it is to be human. The Creator knows His creation. But since Jesus has come, His knowing is now insightful benevolence. He feels my feelings. The author of Hebrews invites us to rush the Throne of God, confident in His mercy. Why? Jesus our High Priest has tasted our life to the full. He knows our weakness and sympathizes with our temptation. He has both power and compassion to give us help (Hebrews 4:16).
The Incarnation is a pool too deep for me. There is so much I do not understand. But I understand what it is like to be small, struggling to grow and often wounded by the effort of it. Bethlehem tells me that God knows all of this too; not with some theoretical, technical, impersonal data. He knows my life! He knows me! He knows you. Christmas is grace with your name on it.