by Kenneth Sumerford
It does not seem possible. And why would God do it; and for us? While Christmas marks an event celebrated in many countries, the birth of Jesus the Christ seems unlikely to many people. Why would God incarnate himself into a baby in a small village in a small country and in a place for cattle? What about the virgin birth? But perhaps the greatest question does not involve the virginity of Mary the mother of Jesus, but rather the question about God putting on human flesh (incarnation) and then living as a person on planet Earth.
To find answers we need to understand the questions. To solve a murder mystery we need to gather the facts. An investigator goes to the scene and collects evidence. So understanding the questions involves going back to original sources and the conditions before the event. In questions concerning God and ultimate causes, the starting point is a very long time ago.
The beginning of our physical universe goes back to roughly 13.7 billion years ago when the whole universe was created. The universe was fashioned from a sphere that was smaller than the size of our solar system; probably smaller than a baseball. How could billions of galaxies be created from something smaller than our solar system? Our Milky Way Galaxy has billions of stars with a medium-sized star we call the Sun. And yet this galaxy was created from a tiny bit of the original universe.
Some people have asked: How could God be contained in a human body? One galaxy could have been contained in a baby. Is it so hard to believe that God the Son was contained in the body of baby Jesus? All of God was not confined to a human body. This issue brings us to consider the body or framework of God.
Theologians, philosophers, royalty and common folks for thousands of years have pondered about the composition of the Divine. History indicates that three thousand years ago most people believed in several or many gods. However, science and math give compelling evidence for one god. For example, if the gods Jupiter and Mercury were here then science would be unstable and unpredictable. One year Jupiter might set a decree that water equals H2O (two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen.) The next year Mercury might rule a section of chemistry and order that water equals H2O2. The ancients were acquainted with the whims of the gods. There would be no modern science without scientific experiments and predictability. A scientist could not predict a specific outcome of an experiment if different gods ruled and even the chief god was sometimes irritable and inconsistent, at least in Greek mythology. Science points to one god and the Bible says that God is a spirit.
So the nature and composition of God is mostly unknown, except through divinely appointed prophets and heavenly inspired teachers. Nature or science (the study of nature through scientific means) can show us some things about the divine order. Nature is consistent so it seems that God is consistent. Drops of water from the US, UK, France, Germany, Russia and Italy are consistently composed of H2O. Even the composition of H2O is relatively consistent. The hydrogen commonly has a nucleus of one proton (protium.) Less than 1 in 1,000 atoms of hydrogen have another structure (deuterium with a proton and a neutron, and tritium with a proton and two neutrons.)
Since God is complex and very vast in intelligence, humans cannot know everything about the Creator. So how can this very large Creator be limited to one small planet and then into one speck on that planet? Perhaps an analogy will give some illumination.
Suppose I walk over to the fish tank and place most of my little finger on my left hand into the water. As I move my finger through the water, the fish recognize a creature in their world. The world the fish know is the fish tank and also some objects on the outside. So, one day about two thousand years ago the Earth and its atmosphere was the “fish bowl” for humans. A few noticeable objects outside were the other planets, the Sun, the Moon and several thousand stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. Some of God was injected or infused into the Baby Jesus. While limited somewhat in a human form, God the Son was still a member of the entity we call God. One of my ten fingers is not very powerful and it is all the fish interact with, but that one finger is a member of my whole body.
While analogies cannot prove something, they can illuminate our minds. I cannot explain all of the intricacies and mysteries of God becoming a baby and growing into a man. But consider it possible that God could place “a finger” into our fish bowl on Earth.
At least a few atheists wonder how God could fill a body. Where can the Son of God fit into a small baby? The answer lies in the following: (1) the composition of a human body; and (2) the nature of spirit. The human body is composed of molecules and molecules are made of atoms. As you probably know, atoms are mostly space. There are electrons, protons and neutrons in an atom. (To save space and time, we will not discuss smaller particles that compose such items as protons and neutrons.) However, most of an atom is empty. Therefore a human body is more than 99% empty. There is plenty of space to fit something into it. The specifics of spirit are unknown but spirit could be like energy. Lightning can be seen and is powerful. Lightning is made of energy, electrons and charged particles. Energy, such as electricity, can enter a human body. Likewise, spirit can enter a human body. We cannot always see energy. The human eye can only see light in a small section of the spectrum. Ultraviolet light, radio waves and most other forms of energy cannot be seen but they do exist. We cannot see electricity but we can see the effects of it on a light bulb. The effects of spirit can sometimes be seen in the actions of people.
Why would God enter into our limited world and care about us? One reason is that the Creator wanted to redeem or reclaim a special race—the human race. While mankind had disobeyed God, they were not worthless. A glimpse of the original creation of mankind is given in the Psalms in the eighth chapter. “For You [God] have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor (Bible, NKJV, Psalm 8: 5.) Feel worthless today? God created humans a little lower than the angels and crowned us with both glory and honor. The Christ of Christmas came into this darkened world to save men and women from their sins and to restore fellowship between Creator and mankind.
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Copyright © 2009 by Kenneth S. Sumerford,
All Rights Reserved
Kenneth Sumerford is a writer, Internet marketer and Web architect who lives in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. He can be reached at
his Web site www.Sumerford7.com.
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