Hello friends and welcome to Christmas in the Raw. What you're about to listen to is a short teaser episode of a rather different kind of Christmas story that I read to my patron supporters. If you want access to the full length episode of this podcast you can go to patreon.com forward slash theology in the

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Thanks so much for your sport and enjoy this short reading of a raw Christmas story. Jesus was human. The incarnation colors our black and white view of grace. The incarnation takes

Edenic intimacy to new Himalayan Heights. God is in control and he makes up the rules.

He could have ordained whatever means he wanted to to save us from our sin.

If he wanted to, he could have waved his cosmic arm over the earth and forgiven all of our sins. He could have snapped his fingers,

clapped his hands, or simply spoken a word and we would have been forgiven. He's God, he can do whatever

he wants. But our Edenic tent God doesn't just want to save us. He actually wants to be with us.

He doesn't just love us. God actually likes us. So God removes his royal robes and steps down from his throne to

experience for the first time what it is like to be human. God is omniscient, which means he's all knowing.

There's nothing in the universe, no piece of information, no fact, no statistic that he doesn't know.

The hairs on your head, the zits on your face, he knows about everyone.

But until the incarnation, God hadn't experienced human nature.

Since Zits aren't sin, perhaps Jesus had them too.

God knows every hair in your head, but through the incarnation, God knows what it feels like to have your hair ripped out.

God knows about tiredness, but through the incarnation, he experiences exhaustion.

God knows about many molecules that it takes to shoot a hunger pain from your stomach to your

brain, but through their incarnation, God knows what it feels like to starve to the point of death.

Through the incarnation, God has enjoyed the same worn wave of sunlight that

splashes across your face on the first day of spring.

...