In or out?

So wrap our injured flesh around You
Breathe our air and walk our sod
Rob our sin and make us holy
Perfect Son of God
Welcome to our world - Welcome to Our World, Chris Rice

This idea is not a fully-baked as I would like it to be. I really like Chris Rice and his writing and musical style suit me quite well. I still think his song Deep Enough to Dream is one of the best songs I have ever heard and I appreciate the sentiments expressed in the above-quoted song Welcome to Our World. I just can't help but think that it is a bit flipped around. Obviously, this is not "our world" as I have been given God's world to manage. And I can only be an effective steward of it when I am truly his son or daughter in both position and practice. But that is the most obvious point and I can explain that away a bit.

Perhaps more subtly this song can be seen as a misrepresentation of one of the purposes of the incarnation (enfleshment) of the Son of God. Rather than Christ coming to earth to enter into my reality I am given a picture of reality. I screwed things up so badly and had such a twisted view of what was real that I needed Someone to set me right. It turned out this was more than a mere schooling of what truly is versus what I think is true. It was a saving. It was only Him saving me from the consequences of my sin that could set me right and give me the perspective of what all this means and where it is going. God was not on the outside looking in and then, through the incarnation, on the inside looking out. I was looking through a darkened and dusty window into the world...the reality that He knew. That He made. 

So, instead of me welcoming the Son into my world, what he did was welcome me into his. He was fully aware of what he was getting when he took on flesh and dwelt among us. I, on the other hand, had no idea what the implications were. I still don't. Thanks be to God I am getting there. Slowly. Most days.

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