God made man

As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.” – Hosea 6:3, prophecy about Jesus


I am reading "Life of Pi" by Yann Patel right now.  It is my housemate's book.  I am very much enjoying community living by the by.  We had our house-warming open house party and it was fantastic! 


Mmmm...as I said before I'm reading "Life of Pi" and the story is mostly about an East Indian teenager, Pi,  who grows up as the son of a zookeeper and is fascinated by both animals and religion.  In one part of the story he explains how he came to meet Jesus Christ.  He read through the gospels with a priest on a vacation after venturing into his parish.  It struck me because Pi was so captured by how Jesus was a limited deity (or rather, he chose to limit himself); as it describes in Phillipians 2:6-8, Jesus Christ:


"Who, though he in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross."

Pi contrasts Jesus, a simple man plagued by thirst, tiredness, sadness and other woes of being human, with the Hindu gods who have "shine and power and might" and chose to take on their full cosmic size to impress and intimidate others.  The God-man Jesus Christ, rather, lives out his days with followers who misunderstand him often and dies a horrific death enduring pain and mockery.


I have often had a difficult time truly viewing Jesus Christ as I think he ought to be -- in awe -- in deep admiration.  Interestingly, Patel's writing of Pi's thoughts on the sheer ludicrosity of Jesus's humanity (even with his miracles) pulled my heart towards Jesus in a new way.  I mostly don't even think of the humiliation he faced.  So God was just a man, it's taken for granted.  That he was God, well, yes, but he was a man too, so that's not so bad for him to limit himself, is it?  Yet, of course, it must have been unbearable at times!  Why did I forget that God being a man does not make him any less God and any less difficult to restrain himself?  How often do I think the world should revolve around me?  Yet Jesus Christ, with every right to authority, lets it go.  More confounding still, as it says in "Life of Pi", why did he take on our days and "wish death upon himself" -- as the priest answers Pi again and again with one word, "Love."

Love.

Truly, Jesus Christ is not man-made God like the Hindu gods who playfully show off.  He is a God made man.  Beautiful beyond words with truth and love joined together to destroy the power of death.  As such, it is only fitting then:

Philippians 2:9-11 continues,
"Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."