December 7, 2022

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth… No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

John 1:14 and 18 esv

It is a common mistake to say that the incarnation of Jesus turned the world upside-down. The world was turned upside-down by our first parents, Adam and Eve. The incarnation is God the Father setting the world right-side up by sending the Son. The truth is that we’ve gotten too used to our own upside-down-ness. For example - when I was hospitalized after a car accident 16 years ago I was not allowed to get up out of my bed. A weird thing happened while I laid there for a month, lying down began to feel like standing up. One day, my mind played a trick on me: looking up at the ceiling actually felt like looking at the wall across my room, lying down felt like standing. Sin does this same thing in our hearts and minds. It is true that the incarnation of Jesus is an interruption to the reign of sin, death and corruption that we commonly experience. But we should not be hoodwinked into thinking that our normal state in the fallen world is our natural state. The right-side up life of Jesus shows us what it is to be upright in relationship to the world and the Father. More than that, the Gospels invite to receive God’s reconciliation for us by trusting in him. What do we make of the world around us? Has normal started to feel like natural? Are you comfortable with things as they are? Is the Father made known by Jesus in the Gospels like the God we imagine to exist? Do you imagine that God is like you? Will we submit ourselves to the Word and ask for help from the Spirit to give us understanding?