Holy Night

Incarnation

Incarnation, the notion that God became a human being, is impossible to believe. Most Christians wink at it. Recently a friend repeated a story he read years ago, from a journalist who covered religion for major news.

He described a man who found the idea too far fetched for a rational person. One Christmas Eve his family went to church, and he stayed home, saying it would be intellectually dishonest for him, since he just couldn’t believe the story.

He was home by the fire when a huge wind and rain storm came up. He heard hard pounding against the windows, which he thought must be the wind and rain. But when he looked he saw small birds crashing into the window, as they tried to escape the storm and get into where they perceived light and warmth. As he watched many hit and fell to the ground. He felt helpless.

Then he thought about the barn, where his cows warmed the place. He went out and opened the door and turned on the lights. But they wouldn’t go in. He tried to shoo them in, to no avail. He put grain around the barn entrance, but still they didn’t go in.

“If only I could be a bird long enough to fly out and lead them in,” he thought. In that instant, he understood the incarnation, why God would choose to become human.

It’s not a matter of what you believe about God, but what God believes about you.

Merry Christmas!

Image by Paula McColl