Today's New York Times carries a fascinating front-page story about North Korean defectors and the Christian faith. Thirty percent of South Koreans are Christians. Their churches send more missionaries abroad than any country except America. One of their most significant recent strategies has been to work with North Korean defectors, hoping they will trust in Christ and then work to help their fellow North Koreans follow Jesus.

The article profiles one such relationship. The missionary, Peter Jung, is working with a defector who wishes to be known only as Mr. Park. The North Korean's wife is a believer, but he is not. He attends worship with Mr. Jung at his wife's encouragement, but says, "Even when I pray, I'm not sure it comes naturally." To him and many others like him, the Christian message sounds much like Communist rhetoric, with Jesus replacing Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. Mr. Park: "At least they are mortal and we can see them. In Christianity, they ask me to praise the Lord, whom we cannot even see."

That's the point of Christmas, isn't it? God became one of us, so we could become one with him. Jesus made everything that exists: "All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made" (John 1:3). Then the God who measures the universe with the palm of his hand (Isaiah 40:12) sent his Son to become a fetus smaller than the palm of mine. We could not see God in heaven, but we could see God on earth. Jesus' best friend described his Lord as "that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands" (1 John 1:1).

Of course, that was then and this is now. The God seen at Christmas returned to heaven at the Ascension. We cannot see him with our eyes as John did. It may help Mr. Park to know that the historicity of the Incarnation is an established fact, that Tacitus, Pliny the Younger, Thallus the Samaritan, Mara bar Serapion, Suetonius and Josephus all testify that Jesus existed and was worshiped by his followers as God. And it may help to point out the fact that seeing is not necessarily believing. Many who saw Jesus did not trust in him, just as many who can see the North Korean dictator do not trust in him.

But the best way we can show the reality of the Incarnation today is to demonstrate Jesus' life in ours. If he could inhabit flesh 20 centuries ago, he can do the same today. His first body was just as frail as ours. It got hungry and tired, bled when cut and died when crucified, just like ours. If he could live in that flesh, he can live in yours and mine. If Christ is your Lord, your body is today the temple of his Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16). Today you will meet people who want to see God. Will they find his love in yours?

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