It’s probably the combination of Owen being 7 weeks old today and the Christmas season, but I’ve been thinking a lot about the Incarnation lately. I guess that makes sense though. You know, having a newborn makes your entire world revolve around babies, and being in a season which is (supposed to be) about a really important baby, connecting the dots there hasn’t been too hard. Which is good, since I don’t really have a lot of brain power these days to connect more than 2 dots in a sequence.
The Incarnation is simply stated as being the Eternal Son of God taking on human nature. He’s both God nature and man nature, unmixed, in the person of Jesus Christ. It’s a central tenet of what it means to be a Christian, and it’s one that not only I affirm, but I see plainly taught in Scripture and affirm because it’s true.
But, I don’t know, the concept of the Son of God taking on human nature never really took on meat and bones for me until Owen came along. I would think from time to time that it’s a little strange to think of the Son of God having a body like mine (without the allergies…), but somehow that never really captured it for me. That’s probably because, just to be honest, there have been few times in my life when I’ve felt the absolute frailty of my body. Kidney stones were a good lesson, but they came and went (thankfully).
But with Owen here, I’ve gotten a new picture of the staggering wonder of the Incarnation. How many people think of poopy, blown-out diapers when they think of the Incarnation? It’s just struck me: Jesus probably cried his little head off for no apparent reason. I think we want to put Jesus and his baby-ness in a different category than all the other babies that have ever been born. But to do that would really just be making Jesus unhuman.
Jesus took on all of the non-sin-tainted humanness of human nature. Which means that the eternal Word of the Father who delighted for all eternity in the fellowship of the Trinity, became a little baby and gave Mary and Joseph sleepless nights. Your doctrine of the Incarnation is whack if it doesn’t include sleepless nights for Mary and fountains of spit up.
It’s not a major revelation, but Owen certainly has helped me get a clearer picture of the frailty of Christ’s human Incarnation. It’s just absolutely bazaar to me that Joseph would have held baby Jesus in his arms, cooing him to sleep while simultaneously holding the one who “upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3).
Later this week I’ll be posting some more thoughts on Owen and Jesus.
The Strasbourg Inn 
I am in total agreement with you. The idea that Mary certainly had to clean and diaper the bottom of the Almighty Son of God just blows my mind with how very big and small it is. After dwelling on that, you just can’t undertake the seemingly inane task of diapering your child without seeing an element of holiness in it.
“Your doctrine of the Incarnation is whack if it doesn’t include sleepless nights for Mary and fountains of spit up.”
I will be quoting you on that one, sir!
By the way, have mentioned lately how absolutely frickin’ cute Owen is…? Cuz I’m sayin’ it now, mm’kay?