Incarnation

In his book, The Shack Revisited, C. Baxter Kruger tells of observing a father waiting for his son in an airport. Suddenly the son came through the door and ran into his father’s arms. Telling this story later to a congregation, he was met by a young girl who told him, “When I heard that story, I saw God, with steps leading up to Him. People were trying to climb the steps, weeping and crying because they couldn’t make it. Then Jesus came and gathered them all together into His arms, carried them up the steps and sat with them all enfolded in His arms in His Father’s lap.” (Somewhat paraphrased) My own imagination suddenly soared, seeing the scene, perhaps as the young girl had seen it. For years I have been on a quest to understand the incarnation, the cross, resurrection and ascension. I know all the standard explanations: “to demonstrate His love for us,” “to take our sins,” “to defeat the devil,” “to appease His Father’s wrath against sin,” “to give us legal standing with the Father.” Right or wrong, none of these satisfied me. Some of them seemed blasphemous, some of them merely inadequate. My imagination “saw” the torment of all humanity, clawing and scratching our way up impossibly high stairs, the descent of Jesus and His ascent again, loaded with His glad burden of humanity; His nestling as a favored child into His Father’s lap carrying all of us with Him and we all relaxing into the warmth of Daddy’s loving embrace—the battle and struggle over, acceptance achieved. Seen this way, through a child’s eyes, the incarnation is the ultimate rescue mission, the joyous round trip of God bringing His lost sheep home again. It is not some complicated theological process; it’s a loving father doing what a loving father would do. It is Ephesians 2:4 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive with Christ (by grace we have been save), and raised us up with Him and seated us at His right hand in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. (NASB) All of our attempts to reach Him are doomed. No matter how religious we are, we are dead in our transgressions. No matter how long the pilgrimage, no matter how valued the alm, no matter how great the sacrifice, all is for naught-we cannot climb even the first step. Many there are who wound themselves on the religious journey to find Him. Many are the others who find it an impossible task and destroy themselves in pursuits which deaden their desire to find Him, or rather, the pain of not being able to find Him. We are all wounded in our deadness and are discouraged and defeated at our repeated failure. Then He stoops down and gathers us into His arms and we know His love and safety. We are home. 01.14.13