It is not that God and creatures share in common this thing called ‘being’ and God just has it to an infinite degree whereas I only have it to a finite degree—that we share the same kind of being…It’s rather that God has being in its infinite fullness and I exist by sharing in that.[1]
—Simon Oliver
God has ‘being’ in infinite fullness. He, alone, has being. I am drawing my existence from God. I am ontologically plugged into him for my being.
How could God become a baby?
Yet he descends, is born, a baby.
I don’t have being. Angels don’t have being. Nothing in all of creation has being. Only God has being. All of the rest of us are given our existence, by sharing in God’s infinite fullness.
Yet he descends, is born, a baby.
Presently, right now, all of us have our existence by sharing in God’s infinite being. I draw my existence from God. I am ontologically plugged into him for my being. I only exist because he gives me the gift of existence. Our existence is the gift of God.
How could God become a man? A baby?
Yet he descends, condescends, is born, a baby.
I do not exist independent of God. I cannot.
[1]Creation: A Guide for the Perplexed, Simon Oliver. Oliver is a British Anglican priest, theologian, and academic. He was formerly an Associate Professor of Philosophical Theology at the University of Nottingham, he is now the Van Mildert Professor of Divinity at the University of Durham. Oliver is also on staff with the Centre of Theology and Philosophy, Durham University.
The content of this post is from All Creation Sings by Luann Budd.