On The Incarnation

In a radio address, C. S. Lewis illustrated the incarnation and Jesus’s sacrifice for us this way: “Lying at your feet is your dog. Imagine, for the moment, that your dog and every dog is in deep distress. Some of us love dogs very much. If it would help all the dogs in the world to become like men, would you be willing to become a dog? Would you put down your human nature, leave your loved ones, your job, hobbies, your art and literature and music, and choose instead of the intimate communion with your beloved, the poor substitute of looking into the beloved’s face and wagging your tail, unable to smile or speak? Christ by becoming man limited the thing which to Him was the most precious thing in the world; his unhampered, unhindered communion with the Father” (C. S. Lewis, introduction to On the Incarnation, by Athanasius the Great of Alexandria, trans. John Behr, Popular Patristics 44B [Yonkers, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2011], 14).