The union of God and man in Christ is what the Nativity in the incarnation is all about. This was God’s plan for salvation. God came to earth and clothed himself in our humanity, and in so doing, the journey of our redemption was inaugurated and finally consummated in the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. Jesus could’ve been born in a palace wrapped in blankets made of the most expensive material in the world. After all, He was the Word made flesh. Instead, Jesus was born in a stable, and for crib, he lay in a feeding trough wrapped in rags. Why did God choose for the incarnation to happen like that? I believe it was because he wanted us to visualize God’s redemptive plan for the New Creation. Think of fallen mankind as those rags, and God’s plan to redeem those rags was to wrap himself up in fallen, broken humanity and, in so doing, sanctify our humanity in union with him. God clothed himself in our weaknesses that his strength might be made perfect, thus redeeming our weaknesses as platforms from which his likeness and glory can be demonstrated. One day the redemptive plan will be perfected, and we will cast off these rags which are still impacted by the law of sin, and we will receive our new bodies swallowed up by life. Until then, Jesus gladly and proudly wraps himself up with us with all of our weaknesses so that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not us to his glory and our joy.
Peter walking on water is a beautiful picture of walking in the Spirit in union with Christ. The whole Christian life is a supernatural one because everything Jesus can do the rags can do. Even though Peter in his fallen humanity had a tendency to sink because of the law of gravity, as long as he kept his eyes on Christ, Jesus overcame his tendency to sink. Without Christ, we are sinkers, but by Christ, we are miracle walkers. Never despise the weakness of the rags of your humanity because Jesus is attracted to them because through them he shines, and worn by him they become the royal garments of the king of kings.