The gospel of John announces that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. One of the challenges facing us as Christians today is underestimating how good our humanity is. We’re so busy trying to be more spiritual, to become more like the angels, but the incarnation – the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us, should inspire us to become more human not more angelic. God already has Seraphim and Cherubim; he doesn’t need us trying to be more like them. He needs us to be more fully human.

Irenaeus, the church father in the second century, declared:

"The glory of God is a human being fully alive; and to be alive consists in beholding God."
God’s glory might be seen in sunsets, and in waterfalls and in the power of the ocean waves or in the vista of a mountain view, but it is most seen, most revealed in humans being fully alive in their humanity – embracing who they are and embracing the God who can reveal who  they are to become. 

We are most spiritual when we are most human. And we are most human when we know God and let God flow through our humanity.

God, in the incarnation, showed us that being human is essentially good; it's in this body that we sin yes, but it's also in this body we find redemption and hope. It’s in this body we love and experience love, it’s in this body we worship, play, and pray, feast and fast, work and rest, serve and experience service. It’s in this body that we are called to follow Christ.

It’s our body and personality which the Apostle Paul says will one day be raised to life, and in the age to come we will keep being human. Not angelic, not disembodied spirits, but the essential self, with our same personalities and a glorified body. A body no longer driven by selfish desire, but humanity whose innocence has been rediscovered.

So this coming week, thank God for being human. Embrace being human, tap into your creativity, use your body, paint or dance, enjoy life and your ability to play in God's playground, enjoy taste, sight and smell, allow yourself to be sexual, get some sleep, treat your body, look after it, exercise it and allow yourself to feel muscles that haven’t been used for some time, garden or enjoy a hobby, feel the passion of following sports, or have some mates over and enjoy the warmth of friendship, tell some jokes and have some belly laughs, read a good book or think deeply, celebrate the fact that God has given you a mind along with the ability to use logic, imagination and to be intuitive. Tap into parts of yourself you know are there , but have never given yourself permission to explore.

Give being more spiritual a miss – let's embrace being more human and alive to God in our humanity.

Cheers
Graeme