What that means, if it is true, as I believe it to be, is that God, the creator, source, and sustainer of all that is, from the smallest atomic particle to the vastness of the Universe, walked among us as one of us.

This walking among us was not one simply of appearance, but it was also of substance. In turn, what that means is that God is not a disinterested observer of the Universe but has, rather, chosen to be identified with the created order in a direct and immediate way. As a consequence of this identification we can know that creation itself is holy, it is sacred, it is special in God’s sight. And therefore it should be holy in our eyes as well.

Another implication of His decision to make Himself available to us through the gift of Himself in the person of His Son (a particular person at a particular moment in a particular place) is that though all creation is sacred, it is itself, not Divine. That is to say the sum total of creation is not God, but neither is God distant and removed from creation.

The fact that He came among us with all the vulnerability of an infant speaks to the nature of God’s unwillingness to coerce, to force the Divine Will upon us. God always gives us freedom to discover the dignity of our own being.

The final thing to know of God through the Person of Jesus is that God loves infinitely and calls all people to the Divine self. That is to say: God loves without respect to the differences that so painfully divide us. God loves Christians and non-Christians. God loves people of “all races and tongues”, all political persuasions, male and female, gay and straight, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, believers of all sorts, and those who do not believe. No one is beyond the love of God. And that loves calls and challenges each and all of us to become fully human; to embrace the dignity and purpose that are our birthright.