An Explanation Of The Incarnation

“[Although Jesus] existed in the form of God, [He] did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but [Christ] emptied Himself.” (Philippians 2:6-7a)

How can one possibly describe Christ’s Incarnation and do it justice? There’s a movie my kids like to watch called: “Honey, I Shrunk The Kids.” Some of you may have seen it. In the movie an eccentric father (who’s predisposed towards developing wacky inventions) comes up with a shrinking machine. And by accident his kids, along with some of their neighbor friends, are shrunk by it. Now in their adventures through the grass of their front yard–which to them looks like an African forest!–the kids come across a host of creatures including a bee, one of those pincher-type bugs and an ant. And as I was thinking about the Incarnation–about how God clothed Himself with humanity–my mind was drawn to the latter creature of these three. Now it’s one thing to be a human that’s shrunk to the size of an ant and then placed in an ant’s environment. But can you just imagine if instead you went from your human body to an ant’s body? Can you imagine that? Now in the ant’s body you’d still be the same individual you were before. You could still think like you used to. You could still feel like you used to feel. But obviously some of the other things you did as a person would be impossible for you to do now as an ant. Now this is about the best example that I can come up with to explain Christ’s Incarnation. It’s kind of like you or I becoming an ant. But our Lord had to humble Himself a trillion times over more than that. In our case we’d be a created being becoming another created being. While in Jesus’ case He was the Eternal Creator becoming one with His creation. Ultimately, to what an amazing length our Lord went to save us from our sins! Thank you, Jesus! We appreciate your love for us!