{{2010_12_08_t1.jpg}} {{2010_12_08_t2.jpg}} {{2010_12_08_t3.jpg}} [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/de/doku.php/jn_de_2010_12_08|Deutsche Version]] [[Start|| Wiki Start]] [[topics_collection_ii|| Topics Collection ii ]] ======Advent III - Why a Child? ...====== Wednesday, Dec 8, 2010. The Christmas story tells us that God comes in his son Jesus into the world. Jesus is born as child of Mary and Josef, a couple that lived around 2000 years ago in Nazareth, a town in the state of Israel, which was a part of the Roman empire at that time. Have you ever asked yourself, why it is a child that plays such a central role for faith? {{2010_12_08.jpg }} **God comes as a child ...** Let us assume for a moment that you are perfectly fine with the story that God comes to mankind, that he is there in Jesus, that Jesus is the son of the eternal God (even if we might not fully understand what that really means). But why is he coming as a child? The Christmas story tells us that the Holy Spirit comes to Mary, and she is told that she will get a child which will be called the son of The Most High. Josef is not the physical father of this child, it is a child of God through the Holy Spirit and of Mary. She has been called mother of God in the catholic tradition. But why does God come as a child? He could have appeared as a human, he could have just spoken through prophets. He did this for many centuries. Why the change? Why a human, living among humans? {{ 2010_12_08_2.jpg}} **God wanted to be with us, to live as we live ...** God wanted to be with us. That is one part of the answer. He wanted to live with the humans he created. He wanted to be close to them - he still wants this every day today. He wants to live in a close and deep unity with us. So he chose to become human in Jesus, in his son. He chose to live, as humans live. That starts with the birth, with being and infant. It continues, growing up, going to school, learning and working. Jesus did all this. About this part of his life there are not many reports. The details here are not for us. It is just important that he lived as an ordinary human. After the signs from the very beginning, he grew up just as a boy, he learned his profession, he worked ... before he started the final part of his mission, which led him to preaching and to the cross. God living as a human has more meaning than the points we discussed above. There is a deep link to the cross, to salvation, to justice. There is a deep link to faith and hope and future. We come back to this in one of our next sessions. [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/en/doku.php/topics_collection_ii|... more texts]]