The following meditation is taken from the book “God Is In The Manger,” published by Westminster John Knox Press.

“God becomes human, really human.  While we endeavor to grow out of our humanity, to leave our human nature behind us, God wants us also to become human – really human.  Whereas we distinguish between the godly and the godless, the good and the evil, the noble and the common, God loves real human beings without distinction…God takes the side of real human beings and the real world against their accusers.  But it’s not enough to say that God takes care of human beings.  This sentence rests on something infinitely deeper and more impenetrable, namely, that in the conception and birth of Jesus Christ, God took on humanity in bodily fashion.  God raised his love for human beings above every reproach of falsehood and doubt and uncertainty by himself entering into the life of human beings as a human being, by bodily taking upon himself and bearing the nature, essence, guilt, and suffering of human beings.  Out of love for human beings, God becomes a human being.  He does not seek out the most perfect human being in order to unite with that person.  Rather, he takes on human nature as it is.”

John 1:1 – 5, 14 –

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.  In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it…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.”