Mythology is filled with legends of ancient gods who descended from heaven and took human form, but no one ever heard or saw them, and no one ever touched them. These were dreams born of human desire for God and the hope that someday He would draw near. The incarnation of Jesus—God who came in the flesh—is how those dreams came true.

Author Dorothy Sayers put it this way: “[God] can exact nothing from man that He has not exacted from Himself. He has Himself gone through the whole of human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair, and death. When He was a man, He played the man. He was born in poverty and died in disgrace and thought it well worthwhile.”

The incarnation of Jesus Christ is the irrefutable proof that God will do anything to draw near to us.

Augustine said, “[God] gave Himself for a time to be handled by the hands of men.” And we have the written record of John, a man who actually did touch Him. We can trust his account—and we can trust that God wants to be near to you and me.  — David H. Roper