I often think that God must be crazy. Why would an all powerful, omniscient creator of everything become one of us? When you stop and think about it rationally, God should never, ever consider this. Bluntly speaking, this is way below God’s pay grade.
And yet, when you read the Exodus story, you realize God has always come to live with us. God gave Moses the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai. God told the Israelites to make a special box covered in gold in which to put the Ten Commandments. They were to carry this box, the Ark of the Covenant, wherever they went. Whenever they stopped, God told them to place the Ark in a special tent that God designed for them, called the Tabernacle. The Israelites did all this. They knew God was with them because as they carried the Ark, and placed it in the Tabernacle, God’s presence was evident in the Ark. The Israelites travelled in the desert for forty years, living in tents, carrying the Ark from place to place. It was not an easy life. But God tented with them. God tabernacled with them. God bore their hardships with them. And then God brought them to the Promised Land.
In our verse from John 1:14, the verb “lived” is actually better translated as “tabernacled” or “tented” so it reads, “The Word became flesh and tented/tabernacled among us.” God became human, and did not expect to live in a grand mansion. God became human and did not expect a lavish, luxurious life. Instead, God was born in a manger and then laid in a feed trough for barn animals. God became human and saw and felt our sorrow and suffering and healed us. God became human and was tortured and died at our hands. God became human and was brought to new life on the third day, and so brings us new life too.
Is God crazy? Yes! God is absolutely crazy about all of us! Crazy enough to go to any length to love and heal us! Thank God!
Dear God, you love us so much, you want to be with us no matter the cost! Thank you, thank you, thank you, for being so crazy about us that you never leave us alone! Amen.
