Barry's Blog

Once upon a time there was a king who dearly loved a peasant maid. The king had a few options available to him. First, he could bring the maiden to live with him in his royal palace. But that wouldn't do, for finding herself suddenly surrounded by the splendor and pomp of the palace, she might easily begin to think too highly of herself. And since love desires no vanity, the king couldn't take that risk.

A second option for the king was to visit his beloved in all his pomp and glory to receive her obeisance and worship. She might be happy enough with this - who wouldn't be thrilled by such a visit? But because love desires unity, and as long as they maintained the distinction between king and subject, they could never experience unity.

A third way open to the monarch would be to disguise himself as a beggar (as fairy-tale kings sometimes do) before visitng her in her hovel. But the king would certainly be found out, for respectable young kings are not brought up to act like serfs. In this case, love would be frustrated by deceit and uncertainty.

No, there was only one way the king could achieve unity with his beloved and not threaten their relationship with vanity, separation or deceit. The king had to join the maiden in her humble station. There could be no play-acting, no disguise. It had to be the real thing. Soren Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher, wrote this parable to illustrate the Incarnation, God's becoming man. "Love does not alter the beloved," concluded Kierkegaard, "it alters itself."

Kierkegaard's story embodies God's logic in Christmas, our celebration of Jesus Christ, the Messiah's birth. Love was the motivation of the Incarnation ("God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son," John 3:16); Self-revelation was its purpose ("The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us," John 1:14); and unity was its goal ("Yet to all who received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God," John 1:12). Given those three things--love, self-revelation and unity--God's only option to reach out to His beloved humanity was to become one of us, even to the point of dying the lowest form of death we could die. That was no shame, no theatrical performance, but the real thing.

 "The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God."                                                                -C.S. Lewis 

For FinishingWell,

Barry Morrow