A Messy World

During Christmas we celebrate that God became human and entered this dirty, flawed and often shitty world. John's Gospel says the Word dwelt among us. God took on all the filth of being human. Jesus did not forsake the pain of humanity to enjoy the joy; he became all that is human.

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

"...what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us."
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

I am reminded that I cannot do Christ's work without getting dirty. I have no right to insist that others work "up" to my world if God doesn't expect me to work my way up to Him. God reached down into the muck of humanity to reach us, but often I find that I pretend my world is less messy than of those around me.

Everyone in this world is dirty. Christ's call is for me to realize I'm dirty, yet redeemed. We journey through this world together, not above it. If it was not too costly for God to journey through the dirt with us, we ought to be able to acknowledge it is in fact quite a mess. Our cost is our pride and the illusion that we are cleaner than others.