God in diapers: Why the Almighty became an infant

God became a vulnerable Child. Photo: fotoload

We love comfortable spirituality very much. We like to talk about the "Higher Mind", "Cosmic Energy", or "Universal Absolute". These concepts sound solid, scientific, and, most importantly, safe. Energy is very convenient. It is somewhere out there, in the stratosphere. It requires nothing from us, except perhaps "positive vibrations". Energy does not cry at night, it does not need to be fed, it does not get cold. With the "Absolute", there is no need to build personal relationships; it is enough to simply acknowledge it as a fact.

But Christmas rudely, almost scandalously, invades this sterile world of our philosophy.

Christianity puts forward a claim that leaves any so-called “reasonable” person reeling: The One who created galaxies now lies in a manger. The One who invented the laws of nuclear physics and thermodynamics cannot hold His own head. The Architect of the Universe needs His diapers changed.

This is shocking. It seems absurd. We want to turn away and say, "No, God cannot be so weak." But it is in this weakness that the main mystery of our faith is hidden, which we often miss amidst the tinsel of Christmas decorations. We are celebrating not just the birthday of a great Teacher. We are faced with the fact: God ceased to be an Idea and became Flesh (John 1:14).

God does not send instructions

We often wonder: why is everything so complicated? If God wanted to save us, teach us, correct us, why didn't He choose a simpler and more effective way? He could have sent us a perfect Book – a detailed manual for life, written in fiery letters in the sky. Or He could have sent an Angel – a shining hologram that would explain to us in a thunderous voice how to live correctly. It would have been majestic, convincing, and, most importantly, hygienic. No blood, no births in unsanitary conditions, no sweat and tears.

But God did not send an instruction. Because an instruction can be read, memorized, put on a shelf, and forgotten. An instruction cannot be loved. You cannot build a relationship with a book. And a God-Hologram can only be feared or obeyed, but you cannot entrust your pain to Him.

God took a seemingly insane risk. He wanted to be with us on equal terms.

Not to look at our life from the safe balcony of Heaven, sending humanitarian aid and sympathetic telegrams from there but to descend into our dirt. To get into our skin. He decided to go through the entire path of a human – from the darkness of the mother's womb to the darkness of the grave.

The dogma of the Incarnation says something that is hard to comprehend: God took on human nature entirely. He did not "pretend", or wear a costume that could be taken off at night. He took on our nervous system, which feels sharp pain from a blow. He took on skin, which gets goosebumps from the cold. He took on a stomach that twists with hunger. He became vulnerable. A book cannot be killed, it can only be burned. But a Human can be betrayed, spat upon, and destroyed. God knew this, yet He still took this step. Because this is the only way to prove Love by becoming defenseless before the one you love.

Empathy instead of sympathy

What does this mean for us personally? Why is this ancient dogma not a dry theory, but a medicine for our souls today?

Firstly, it completely changes the nature of prayer in moments of pain. When we are lonely, scared, or in pain, we cry out into the void. If there were only a "Cosmic Mind" up there, it would not understand us. A well-fed person does not understand a hungry one. An Absolute that does not know suffering can only "analyze" our pain.

But we pray to the One who has gone through it Himself.

We have a God who knows what betrayal by friends is because He was betrayed. He knows what the fear of death is because He Himself sweated blood in the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:44). He knows how the body aches and how the soul aches from injustice. When we cry, we cry together with Him. He is "one of us". He is not an observer but a Co-sufferer. In Christianity, God does not just relieve pain; He shares it with us. "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are –yet he did not sin" (Hebrews 4:15).

The body is not garbage

Secondly, Christmas sanctifies our physical reality. Many religions and philosophies teach that the body is a prison for the soul, a dirty shell that must be discarded as soon as possible to fly into the "pure realms of the spirit". Christianity sharply says: "No."

If God Himself put on this body, if He did not disdain matter, then matter is sanctified.

Our hands, our eyes, our heart are neither "temporary packaging" nor garbage. This is what God made His own. Christmas reminds us that Christianity is not a religion of floating in the clouds. It is a religion that stands firmly on the ground. We are saved not from the body, but with the body. That is why we treat life, health, and sacraments so carefully, where through bread and wine (matter!) we unite with God. Our body is a temple, not a dilapidated hut.

Entry without a password

And finally, thirdly—accessibility. To touch the "Higher Energy" in other teachings often requires years of complex practices, meditations, gurus, secret knowledge, and high levels of initiation. One must become "enlightened" to reach Heaven.

In the Nativity of Christ, Heaven came down to earth.

To see God, the shepherds did not need to complete theological courses or go into astral projection. They just needed to enter the cave. God became small so that He would not be feared. He became simple so that anyone could find Him – the wise man from the east, the illiterate shepherd, and us.

God removed all barriers. There is no face control, no dress code, no complex passwords. There is only a Child who reaches out to everyone who is ready to approach. The only thing required of us is to bow down. You cannot enter the cave with your head held high, only bent over. Humbled.

The Reality of Love

Christmas is a celebration of the fact that God ceased to be an abstraction. Energy cannot lie in a manger. Energy cannot cry from the cold. Energy cannot ascend the Cross for us. Only a Person can do all this.

We often seek God in miracles, signs, and something grand and loud. But He waits for us in silence and helplessness.

He waits for us to stop fearing His greatness and simply love Him as one loves a child – not for "benefit", not for "power", but simply for being.

And perhaps the greatest miracle of Christmas is not that the Virgin gave birth, but that the Almighty God trusts us so much that He allowed us to hold Him in our arms.

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