The Meat of the Matter

One of my favorite experiences is cooking. I find it both satisfying and rejuvenating. When I come home from a day at work and set about creating a meal, it’s a deeply enjoyable transition—from demands and organization into a creative phase of pleasure.

I want to make someone smile. I want them to forget manners a bit and enjoy eating with some abandonment.

One evening, when Beckie was away, I had three guys over. I cooked a meal they cleared—empty serving dishes at the end. And as we ate, I asked each of them to share one thing they had learned in the past year. It wasn’t just a meal of good food. It was a fulfillment of community

As I move through Advent, one of my usual practices is planning the main meal of our Christmas celebration. All our children cook or bake, so when we’re all together, we sometimes create a kitchen schedule—who owns the space and for how long.

But for me, it’s all about the main part.

It’s the roast.

It’s the meat.

It’s the carne.

And the main course of our devotional experience here is the same. It’s the Incarnation. When we think of the miracle of Jesus becoming human, we need to take hold of that word.

•         IN — Jesus enters in. Not a concept to admire or a theological exercise to perform. A reality to digest.

•         CARNE — The meat, the flesh, the body. God didn’t send a message. He came himself. It’s visceral: sweat, hunger, laughter, tears, touch.

•         TION — The act of. Not an idea, but an action. A happening.

This is God served up—not in abstraction, but in presence, in proximity, in vulnerability. Jesus said, “… this is my body, given for you, take and eat.”

John the Apostle wrote:

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory…” (John 1:14)

And again, even more explicitly:

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim...

(1John 1:1–2)

  Jesus was not just one with us. He was one of us. The experience of him as truly human is the core of our faith. He wasn’t an image. He was embodied. Incarnation is God’s decision to marinate in our humanity. To take on the muscle and mystery of being human. To be touchable, interruptible, woundable. It’s not just God with us—it’s God as us.

And that… That should make us smile.