He Became One of Us
Bible Reading: Romans 1:1-5
It is the Good News about his Son, Jesus, who came as a man. Romans 1:3
You’re in the supermarket checkout line, waiting patiently while the cashier chats on the phone. Take a vote: Which headline would most tempt you to pick up a tabloid newspaper and read the story?
• “Government Scientist Reports That All Parents Are Space Aliens”
• “My Daughter Is from Mars”
• “Ten-Year-Old Receives Million-Dollar-a-Month Allowance”
• “Jesus Has Returned-Living in Orlando”
You might not be surprised by any of those headlines. But here’s one more: “Human Transformed into Ant.”
That was actually the theme of a Christian film. No, it wasn’t about a missionary sent to preach to a colony of ants. Actually, it was a parable about how Jesus was God born as a human being.
At the start of the film, a man and his adult son tend a lush jungle garden at the top of a mountain. From the base of the mountain rise faint cries. The gardener and his son realize the ants far below are living in hatred and war. The father and son long to bring peace to the ant colony, but they decide that they must visit the colony in a form the ants will understand. The gardener’s son agrees to leave the beautiful garden, travel to the bottom of the mountain, and enter the ant colony as—you guessed it—an ant.
This one-of-a-kind ant teaches other ants about the gardener’s love for them. Many listen, but the gardener’s enemies kill the son. He rises from the dead as a winged ant, returns to his father in the garden, and all the ants who believe in him sprout wings like his. They spread his message of the gardener’s love and peace.
Crazy, huh? But it shows how important it was for Jesus to come to earth as a human being like us to make us a part of God’s family. If Jesus hadn’t left heaven and become a man, we couldn’t have become members of God’s family. His life, death, and resurrection smashed sin and opened the door to new life through faith.
Think about it: If Jesus hadn’t entered our world and provided forgiveness for sin, we would have no way to become God’s very own children.
TALK: How does the story about a man becoming an ant help you understand the price Jesus paid for your sins?
PRAY: Jesus, thank you for the steps you took to get close to us. We couldn’t know God the Father if you hadn’t come to earth.
ACT: The next time you see an ant crawling down the sidewalk, squat down and think about what Jesus did for you.