It is usually the simplicity of God that actually shocks us the most.

The most devoted religious leaders of Jesus’ day had no problem believing that God could form a universe as complex as ours. They had no problem believing that there was no feat so great that God could not accomplish it; no challenge so daunting that God could not overcome it.

Yet, some of these same believers could not accept the idea of God taking on flesh and blood and being born of a woman. This truth was for some too great a leap of faith to make. Human beings are weak, subject to the elements and destructive forces of our world. God could never stoop so low or be so vulnerable as to allow sinners to torture and kill him!

Certainly, God could never identify with the homeless man on the street, the hardened and lonely prisoner on death row, a child dying of thirst or a family begging for food to eat. Surely, Christ could not give us his flesh to eat and his blood to drink.

Then again, what greater motivation is there for a worshiper of God not to neglect the needy, than for God to identify personally with them! And what greater source of nourishment is there for us than to be fed by the best that God can give ~ Himself.