I was invited to participate in a blogger roundtable at Patheos, and I was asked to answer the question, in 100-words or less: Why Does the Incarnation Matter? For those of you who are wondering, the incarnation is the idea that God took on flesh (incarnation comes from the root words in-carne, in the flesh) when he came to earth as Jesus. Christmas is a celebration of the Incarnation.
When my mother-in-law was dying, she needed people to place ice chips in her mouth and rub lotion on her body. When my children were babies, they needed us to rock them to sleep and change their diapers. I prefer sentimental statements to dirty hands and tired limbs. Jesus may have preferred to stay away from this world of stables and carpentry and crucifixion. But the Incarnation shows me that God’s love isn’t abstract. It is as concrete as a baby in a manger, as a young man in a temple, as a rabbi on a cross.
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