Dwelt Among Us

READ

John could have chosen any number of words to describe Jesus becoming human. He could have used "anthropos" (human being) or "soma" (body). Instead, he chose "sarx" – flesh. This word carried weight in the ancient world, often associated with human limitation, weakness, and even moral failure. It was the opposite of nobility and spirituality.

Let’s take a moment to read John 1:14:

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."

REFLECT

John's choice is deliberate and profound. He's telling us that Jesus didn't just visit humanity like a tourist passing through town. He moved in. He took up permanent residence in the human condition, with all its messiness, limitations, and struggles. The eternal Word of God didn't hover above our problems – He entered into them completely.

Think about what this means. When you're exhausted from a sleepless night with a sick child, Jesus knows that bone-deep weariness. When you're wrestling with doubt, He remembers the weight of questions. When you feel misunderstood or rejected, He recalls the sting of betrayal. When you're tempted to take shortcuts or compromise your values, He understands the pull of easier paths.

Jesus didn't just have a human experience – He had your human experience. He knows what it's like to live in flesh, with all the vulnerabilities and limitations that come with it. This is why He can truly empathize with our weaknesses, as Hebrews reminds us.

But here's the incredible part: after His resurrection, this same Jesus breathed on His disciples and invited them to become "new humans in the new creation." He's not asking us to escape our humanity, but to be fully human the way God intended – filled with His Spirit, empowered by His presence, transformed by His love.

This has profound implications for how we live. We don't need to pretend we have it all together. We don't need to project spiritual perfection. We can be authentic about our struggles while also being confident in God's transforming power. We can embrace our humanity while being empowered by His divinity.

When we understand that Jesus made His dwelling in flesh – our flesh – it changes everything. Our bodies become sacred spaces, dwelling places for God's Spirit. Our ordinary lives become opportunities for extraordinary grace. Our daily struggles become places where God's power is made perfect in weakness.

This is why authentic Christian living is so powerful. When people see us wrestling with real struggles while walking in real faith, they glimpse something of the incarnation. They see that God doesn't demand perfection before He moves in – He meets us in our mess and transforms us from the inside out.

We carry this incarnational reality wherever we go. In our workplaces, our neighborhoods, our families, we're living proof that God doesn't keep His distance from human struggle. He enters in, He dwells with us, and He transforms us not despite our humanity, but through it.

The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. And now, by His Spirit, He continues to dwell in us, making us living expressions of His grace and truth in a world that desperately needs to see God with skin on.

RESPOND

Take a moment to process what God might be leading you to do in light of what you read.

• How does knowing that Jesus fully entered into human experience – including its limitations and struggles – change how you relate to Him in your difficulties?

• What does it mean to you that your body is designed to be "the dwelling place of God's Holy Spirit"?

REST

Take a moment to rest in God’s presence and consider one thing you can take away from your time reading, then close your devotional experience by praying:

Jesus, thank You for not keeping Your distance from our human condition but fully entering into it. Help me embrace my humanity while being transformed by Your Spirit dwelling within me. Make my ordinary life a sacred space where others can encounter Your grace and truth. Use my authentic struggles and victories to point others to Your love. Amen.