Only human?

"The Word became flesh..." John 1.14

Perhaps because it is 'World Humanitarian Day' I have spent much of it in humanitarian work - of a sort. That is why I am so late in posting this. At least, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

But maybe I should be spending as much time contemplating what it means to be human? Blithely we use the word as an(other) excuse: "I'm only human" or "in my humanity I only managed such and such"; as if our human-ness is a weakness which lets us down.

Are we forgetting that, when he made the world, God fashioned human-beings as his crowning masterpiece? And when Christ came into the world it was not to come down to our level, so much as to raise us up to his. The humanity of Jesus is as fundamental as his divinity. In him, we don't see a flawed God, we see human-ness at its best!

By all means let 'World Humanitarian Day' challenge you to do more for your fellow human-being. But, as importantly, may it help us all to view one another in a more elevated light, as masterpieces of God's creation, with the example of the Lord himself to follow, in order to live up to our potential - as beings who are created in his image, bought for a price (Jesus own self-sacrifice), and destined for great things:

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29.11