One of Us

Jesus didn't just walk among us.

He was one of us.

He ate with us, drank with us, rejoiced with us, wept with us.

That really is amazing to think about.

When we think about Jesus, we think about how He is God, how He was born of a virgin, how He performed miracles, how He died on the cross. He did all that because he is God, but He was also fully human. What does that mean though?

While the Bible is completely about Jesus, at the same time, we don't really seem to know much about Him. Sure, we know He worried His parents that time He stayed behind at the Temple and Mary thought He was traveling with Joseph and the rest of the med but Joseph thought He was with Mary and the rest of the women and children. And yeah, we know He enjoyed a good party when He performed His first miracle at the wedding feast and made top class wine to help the party keep going. Obviously He was kind and loving and caring too, or else He wouldn't have encouraged the little children to be brought to Him or healed everyone who asked.

But what was Jesus like as a human? Was He a colicky baby or have His days and nights mixed up? As a child, did He scrape His knees playing ball out in the yard with His friends? When Mary came to wake teenage Jesus up, did He grumble and roll over and pull His pillow over His head; "Just five more minutes mom…"? When He was with His apostles, did He talk sports with them over a drink? Did he ever get a cold or a headache?

These are the things that the Bible doesn't tell us. I wish it did. The Bible tells us that Jesus was both fully God and fully man, but as plain ol' humans, that's kinda difficult for us to really understand.

In a way, the "fully God" part is easier to understand than the "and fully man" part. After all, we know that God is all powerful, all present, and all knowing. Of course Jesus, being fully God, would have been all powerful, all present, and all knowing. But He was also fully man. We know that He was born in a stable and died on a cross. We know that He liked to party like at the wedding feast at Cana and that he loved everyone regardless of age or religion or race or gender. But we don't know what His day to day life was like.

The more I think about it, the more I think that not knowing the day to day of Jesus' life is one of the marvelous things about the Bible. By not knowing for sure, we have more opportunities to see Jesus in our own lives. We can see Him helping Mary wash the dishes after dinner. We can see Him go play soccer with His friends at recess. We can see Him taking a walk on a beautiful fall day. We can see Him in our friends and family and everyone we pass on the street.

After all, Jesus was one of us.