Incarnation does not just mean Jesus was the word made flesh. Christmas should be a reminder that we, too, are sacred expressions of the heart of the universe.
I suspect if we could go back in time to Bethlehem on Christmas morn we would see a world that looks much like ours. The stories of Christmas are not narratives about holier people in a holier time. Christmas is a yearly reminder of how our lives might look and feel if we were fully present to our own incarnation in the here and now.
“Incarnation” also means “enfleshment.” “Enfleshment” means fully manifesting our own cosmic creativity in our real lives. We, too, are tormented by our Herods. We, too, are children of the stars.
Incarnation means to stop waiting for better circumstances to begin manifesting who we truly are. Truth and love are not disembodied abstractions. We must give birth to these treasures in our own lives. To wait to discover spiritual treasures in the external world is like a bird hoping to find an already built nest full of eggs.
Whatever the word “sacred” means to you, it can only be given birth through loving real people in real situations. Incarnation doesn’t mean having orthodox beliefs about Jesus. Incarnation means manifesting love in our real life circumstances. Incarnation requires fearless honesty to explore, to make mistakes and to discover through trial and error who we authentically are.
Acceptance is a very good starting place to begin our spiritual journey. Until we have come to terms with the way life really is our spiritual progress is conceptual and provisional. Life becomes a problem we are trying to get around in hot pursuit of some imagined goal. Until we come to terms with who we really are, our emotions are problems we are trying fix. We piously peel away layer after layer of ourselves thinking we will find a sacred kernel that doesn’t exist by itself. We throw away minute after minute of our authentic lives seeking something to call holy. Such inattention is a walking death.
If we are ever to manifest the profound creativity latent within us, we have to stop waiting for better situations to come along before we begin to live. Christmas is a reminder that stars often shine brightest in a bleak backgrounds. Music is sometimes sweetest after a period of wretching silence. Intimacy sometimes feels warmest in frigid external conditions.
Incarnation means to start living where we are and to manifest love as fearlessly and completely as we can. Every moment we love authentically from the ground of our being is our true Christmas.