Bodies are important to God.

It can be easy to overlook the embodied nature of our God’s story, especially during this season. Our eyes turn to the ethereal, heavenly messengers, to the ancient voices passed down in our hymns: “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” But at its heart, this is a story about how the God of the Ages came down to be Emmanuel, God with Us.

God with a body.

The Incarnation is the story of God’s taking on the fullness of our human vulnerability. God in a fetal body, vulnerable to every factor and disease that harms God’s own human creation. God in a child’s body, completely dependent on God’s own creation. God in a body, experiencing disease, discomfort, loss. Today’s scripture reminds us that God’s plan wasn’t for us to make endless sacrifices and offerings—it was to be with us. And this still is God’s greatest desire: to be with us, wholly and without reservation, with nothing standing between. Enfleshed. Embodied.

Many of us are very practiced at distancing ourselves from our bodies. We are overworked and underslept. We might frequently ignore cues of hunger, illness, or discomfort in pursuit of something “more important.” But it is God on High who values our bodies, took on a body, found wisdom and teaching in its needs and wants. May this scripture lesson remind us that there is value in our created bodies and that in embracing and learning from our created selves, we may find God there.