To rescue us from our fallen false self and our lostness, God became a human. Wow, God so loved the world.
After four weeks, the fertilized egg of a pregnant woman is 0.1 millimeters. That is so tiny it can’t be seen by the human eye. God became small for us.
There is nothing more frail than an infant child, yet Jesus passed through the birth canal like any other newborn, completely fragile and vulnerable. God became frail for us.
Jesus was born in a stable, wrapped in rags, and lay and slept in a feeding trough.
God dwelt in uncleanness for us.
Jesus, as a baby, had to be fed, cleaned, changed, etc. Jesus was totally dependent on others for His very survival. In the incarnation, God became needy for us.
Jesus was born to a poor young couple. God became poor for us.
Very few people believed Mary’s story about being impregnated by the Holy Spirit. Jesus lived under the cloud of embarrassing rumors. God became scandalized for us.
Homeless, the Holy family fled Israel on foot for more than 1000 miles and spent several years in Egypt. God became a homeless foreign refuge for us.
Clothed in our humanity, Jesus was tempted in EVERY way like us. God allowed Himself to feel our struggle for us.
WHY?!! Why did God choose to experience all of that? There are a lot of right answers to that question, but I want to focus on one. God wanted us to know that He identifies with our fallenness (Jesus wasn’t fallen, and He was tempted without sinning , but He did clothe Himself with our fallenness). God wanted us to know He is not threatened or offended by our smallness (brokenness), frailty, or neediness. He is not threatened or offended with our scandals. He wanted us to know that He is not surprised or offended with our need for repentance and transformation.
He, in deep thought and intentionality, dove into and clothed Himself with the tragic mire of our human condition to transform us from the inside out. The incarnation and the transformation continue daily.