God Became Man
by Pat Anderson
Once upon a time, God became man. Yep, God told His son, Jesus (who was also God) to go live on Earth for a while to show the people what He’s like. Now even though Jesus was also God, He was the son, and sons do what their fathers tell them. So … Jesus put on His superpower cape and flew down to Earth …. No, it didn’t happen like that.
God had special parents chosen for His son. He told Jesus something like this, “I’m going to grow you from the beginning like a regular human and place you as a baby inside a young woman’s tummy. Her name is Mary, and she will be your mom. When the time comes you will be born on Earth.” Did Jesus argue and say He didn’t want to leave the perfect land of Heaven and go to Earth only to experience skinned knees, tummy aches, and bullies, to name only a few miseries? No. He understood that his trip would be very difficult, the most difficult thing He or anyone would ever do. But He didn’t complain. Why? Because of His great love for the people on Earth who were living and behaving as if they didn’t know God loved them. He must try to save them.
Finally, one day—the day we now call Christmas—Mary gave birth. Not in a clean hospital, not even in a hotel room, but in a dusty stable surrounded by donkeys and cows. God wanted the people of Earth to know that Jesus wasn’t the kind of prince the people couldn’t speak to if they were poor. Jesus came to be everyone’s prince, the Prince of Peace. If we have shalom (the Hebrew word for peace) we have a relationship with God and are no longer poor or hopeless. We are loved. Peacefully loved.
God and Jesus could have just loved us from up in Heaven, but then we wouldn’t have seen in person how much we are loved. You must know that Heaven is a perfect land where there is no sickness, pain, hurt feelings, or crying. No one treats anyone badly in Heaven. No one ever goes hungry. Every animal is friendly. And it’s truly beautiful! There aren’t any fires or hurricanes, or even litter by the side of the roads. Imagine what a huge sacrifice Jesus made to leave that place and come live here for 33 years! 33 years of colds, fevers, hurt feelings, maybe even lice! He experienced these things so He would be able to sympathize with us when we go through them. He certainly had the power to heal himself. He healed many others.
Later, when it was time for His really big sacrifice, He allowed mean people to hit Him, spit on Him, tear His clothes, and nail Him to a cross. He hung upright on a wooden cross with big stakes nailed through His hands and feet to hold Him there. His whipped, bloody back scraped up and down on the splintery wood as He struggled to breathe. He could’ve said, “Enough, Father! This is too hard, too painful. I quit.” He could’ve taken Himself down from that cross. But He stayed. Why? Because of His powerful love for you and me, and for everyone who’s ever lived and will live in the future. He understood that His father’s plan would reconcile us to Him, giving us shalom. God wanted our broken relationship with Him to be mended.
Because of Adam’s choice, sin had entered the world, so Jesus needed to come into our world to defeat sin. At the time it didn’t look like Jesus was defeating anything. It looked like He had lost. But three days later, Jesus defeated death, the worst thing a sinful world has to offer! By defeating death, Jesus beat Satan—Satan was the one who tempted Adam to sin, losing eternal life for all of us in the perfect Garden of Eden. Jesus bought back the eternal life Adam lost.
Jesus got up from the slab in His tomb, folded His grave cloth, walked through a multi-ton rock door, and began reuniting with His friends. He ate with them. He let any doubters feel the healed scars on His hands. His friends were finally beginning to understand.
Soon afterwards, some of His friends went with Him to the top of a mountain, where He explained why He must go back to Heaven. If He went back, He could send the Holy Spirit to everyone who believes. That way He could be with millions of people at once rather than just a few. He told them He would come again one day to take His friends to live forever with Him in Heaven. His friends were sad to see Him go, but they understood. They understood that they needed to tell everyone about what they now knew about Jesus. Then more and more people could be saved from themselves, from sin, and have shalom. So that’s just what they did. And that’s just what we should do.
Are you Jesus’ friend? Then go, use your superpower, the Holy Spirit Jesus has given you, and tell everyone you know about the love of Jesus.
- What does it mean to be a friend?
- Are you a friend to someone if you only talk to them when you need something?
- What are some ways you can tell your friends about the love of Jesus?
About the Writer
Pat Anderson is a music teacher/tennis enthusiast living in sunny Southern California. She has published four children’s picture books, writes piano music, and has contributed to Pure in Heart Stories issue 5. Her website is patandersonbooks4kids.com.
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