There's no greater affirmation to our humanity than the Bethlehem manger, no greater demonstration of God's love for us than the Cross of Calvary, no greater proclamation of human hope than the empty tomb of Jesus Christ.

The Christian hope of salvation isn't to become like the angels of the spiritual world, but to remain true humans, eternally at home in fleshy bodies of cosmic dust, reigning forever in a restored physical universe beside the God-Man, the Divine-Human King over both worlds, because His own glorified human body of resurrected earthly flesh points to the destiny of our own.

Hope beckons to a death-bound human race from the open doorway of Christ's empty tomb.

The highest compliment ever paid to the entire human body, and the clearest commentary on its decency, dignity and sacred worth, is the bodily manifestation of God's Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, in truly 'human' flesh by His Incarnation, Resurrection, Ascension and predicted Second Coming.

The only way God could get any closer to humanity than by taking upon Himself our human flesh was to take upon Himself our human sins.

When we, in our humanity, fail to sense God's presence, it helps to remember that He who promised, 'I am with you always,' also felt the human perception of abandonment, when He said, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.'