The Incarnation

Photo by Kevin Hartnett

Notwithstanding mankind’s stature-

Ever lost from dust made more-

God In-finite-man, a Savior,

Bore the filth of earthen floor.

-- K. Hartnett, December 1976

Then the Lord God formed man of dust…(Genesis 2:7))

And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger…(Luke 2:7)

He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree…(I Peter 2:24)

The Star Capella - Beauty at the Change of Season

Herald of the crisp and cold winter nights of  northern latitudes, the bright star Capella rises prominently in the east during the late fall months.  Capella is the sixth brightest star in the sky.  At a distance of only 45 light- years, it is also one of the closer stars to our Sun, and actually shares the Sun’s beautiful yellow color.  The color of a star is determined by its temperature, much in the same way as iron glows differently when it is heated to various degrees.  Lower temperatures produce reddish hues; extremely hot ones show as brilliant blue-white.  Capella is actually part of a multiple star system, with a nearby companion star, and two more at a greater distance in orbit around the primary two.   Astronomers have found that the majority of stars in our galaxy are part of such pairs or groupings.

Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars, the One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power not one of them is missing. (Isaiah 40:26)

I wrote this poem during the Christmas season following my first year of living as a true Christian.  In it I try to verbalize the unspeakably great  truth that God Himself in the form of Jesus Christ became incarnate, that is, came as a man, to humbly pay for sins through His death and thereby reconcile sinful men to Himself.   The scriptures reveal Christ as simultaneously fully God ("Infinite man") and fully man ("In finite man").  He humbly laid aside His heavenly prerogative for glory and was born on a stable floor in the flesh of dust from which He originally created Adam.  Later in life He would also bear the spiritual filth of men’s sins on the cross as a substitutionary sacrifice.  The last line of this poem seeks to capture simultaneously  these interrelated  thoughts.