Many of us, when we...
Illustration
Many of us, when we were younger, liked to read comic books. (Maybe some of us still do!) Back in the heyday of superhero comics (before they got all glossy and expensive, and went upscale as "graphic novels"), it didn't seem to matter which comic you picked up -- Batman, Superman, the Fantastic Four -- always inside the back cover there was the same advertisement. There, in all his black-and-white photographic glory, is a muscle-bound guy in a skimpy bathing suit, flexing his muscles.
Next to him is a line drawing -- not a photo, but a cartoonish image -- of a scrawny-looking guy in oversize bathing trunks, sitting on a beach towel. A couple other cartoon guys are kicking sand in his face. Nearby, a pretty girl in a bathing suit is looking like she thinks this is the height of entertainment.
There's no mistaking the message of that ad. "Don't be the scrawny guy in the oversize trunks. Send away for our fitness regimen, and we'll transform you from a 98-pound weakling into a real man!"
The pre-adolescent boys for whom this ad was designed undoubtedly thought being a "real man" had to do with becoming big and strong. Most of us who've had some life-experience have since learned it has a lot more to do with being the person you truly are.
Another name for Christmas is "the Feast of the Incarnation." By that word -- incarnation -- we mean the celebration of Jesus becoming a "real man." But Jesus' becoming a real man has nothing to do with the circumference of his biceps, or whether or not he ever allowed anybody to kick sand in his face. It has everything to do with the miracle that happened one day long ago: when, as the letter to the Hebrews puts it, God spoke "by a Son."
Next to him is a line drawing -- not a photo, but a cartoonish image -- of a scrawny-looking guy in oversize bathing trunks, sitting on a beach towel. A couple other cartoon guys are kicking sand in his face. Nearby, a pretty girl in a bathing suit is looking like she thinks this is the height of entertainment.
There's no mistaking the message of that ad. "Don't be the scrawny guy in the oversize trunks. Send away for our fitness regimen, and we'll transform you from a 98-pound weakling into a real man!"
The pre-adolescent boys for whom this ad was designed undoubtedly thought being a "real man" had to do with becoming big and strong. Most of us who've had some life-experience have since learned it has a lot more to do with being the person you truly are.
Another name for Christmas is "the Feast of the Incarnation." By that word -- incarnation -- we mean the celebration of Jesus becoming a "real man." But Jesus' becoming a real man has nothing to do with the circumference of his biceps, or whether or not he ever allowed anybody to kick sand in his face. It has everything to do with the miracle that happened one day long ago: when, as the letter to the Hebrews puts it, God spoke "by a Son."
