It is a great poverty to imagine that God takes a human body only that he might die. We cannot reduce the Incarnation in this way. If in Jesus Christ the Creator becomes what he makes then God has bestowed on human flesh unimaginable dignity. At the heart of this movement down to the creature is an unfathomable (and in human terms, impossible) love. We cannot become what we make. God decides to become nothing in the universe but human. When the son takes flesh from Mary the most intimate connection is made between the divine life and human nature. God does not become what he does not love. God does not become what he hates. God becomes what he makes and this is a love and a solidarity only exceeded by God’s willingness to die also for what he makes. We do not get there though until we understand the infinite divine love involved in God becoming human. All theologies that do not marinate in this mystery will distort the Incarnation and the Cross, will give us a false image of God and a false image of humanity. The image of God and the image of humanity is the incarnate God, Jesus, nailed to wood.