It is one thing to say what God "could do," it is entirely another to say what God actually did do. In a purely theoretical way, God could do absolutely anything. Although there may be philosophical quibbles about this, generally this is one of the ways in which we think of God actually functioning. He is unbounded by those principles and conditions which He has imposed on creation. He could do just about anything in regard to the incarnation, He chose not to do just anything. He chose specifically to send His Son born of a virgin mother, in the same way that every human is born, except without sin. He does not create a human nature

ex nihilo, that is, out of nothing. He takes the very stuff of humanity, which he had long ago created into nature in Adam and Eve, and uses it for his re-creative purposes in the incarnation of our Lord Jesus. And, as always, this He does not for His own benefit, but always and only for our own.

Christ is born of a mother just as we are born of our mothers so that we might be assured of his gracious care for miserable sinners like us. He did not balk at becoming one of us in the same way that we ourselves have become. Though it is certainly a condescension on his part, but one which the serving God makes because He comes to serve us and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mt 20:28). He becomes fully one of us that he might fully save those with whom He shares their nature. How comforting this is for us in the midst of our suffering! When we cry out in agony we know that He fully understands our trial and its pain, because He Himself has suffered it fully and even beyond anything we might ever experience in our lives. When we are forsaken by our adult children, we know that He experienced the full rejection of His Father upon the cross of Calvary. We are not alone with our broken heart. This is not the Clintonesque, "I feel your pain." This is real. When death creeps upon us, we can never be alone in those frightening and painful last moments, because He has cried out, "It is finished!" and given up His spirit just as we will. He knows what it is to die. If we face poverty and hardship because we're deprived of gainful employment, we know that He understands what it is to be deprived, for He has said, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head" (Mt 8:20). He knows what it is to be poor. We can never be alone in our poverty. Because he honors it and makes it valuable by his own poverty. Who would not want to know such a God?

There is nothing of fantasy in the incarnation of our Lord. The incarnation of Christ is not merely a show or an appearance, He does not just put on a human mask, but is fully human. God uses the real stuff of life of the Virgin Mary for his salvific purposes. The eternal Son of the Father comes from heaven and lives among men as man. He is real God of real God and real man of man. He who was born like all the children of Adam could alone save all Adam's children. He who is God has an earthly mother, just as we do. He saves us as one of us.