Incarnational Thinking 

When we consider the length to which God went to bring about our salvation, we cannot miss an underlying thought process embedded in His divine nature: God pursues us with an unstoppable passion.  This truth not only helps us understand His heart, but also the devotion He expects of everyone who takes up the cross.

Consider what God did when Adam and Eve sinned.  He could have sent an angel to lower the boom and kick them out of the Garden.  Instead, He came Himself, walking in the “cool of the day” to engage the man and woman He had created.  Their sin saddened God, but He wasn’t about to send someone else to address such a pivotal moment in human history.

Throughout the Old Testament, we find God’s desire to mark His presence among His people.  In the wilderness His glory appeared in the form of a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night (Exodus 13:21).  On Mt. Sinai, His finger carved His commandments into tablets of stone (Exodus 31:18).  The tabernacle, and later the temple represented God’s presence, and in a time of great national crisis He spoke through and cared for His prophets (1 Kings 17:1-8).  These are merely notable highlights in a pattern we find throughout scripture, and one that found its culmination in the birth of Jesus.  Coming to be with us was more than a solution for God.  It was His way.