John 17:24 clearly points to the intention of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to bring His faithful into fellowship with Him where they could see His glory. To see His glory has nothing to do with detached observation. To truly see God is to be in communion with Him, participate in His life, share in His blessedness. Jesus wanted His followers to enjoy this beatific vision. How did Jesus accomplish this? Through the incarnation of the Son of God. Advent is a time when we can reflect on God’s identifying with humans to bring us into communion with Him.

During the Advent season, pop culture and intrusive commercials bombard us to sell their understanding of the “spirit of Christmas.” To screen all of that out, we need to remind ourselves about the core meaning of the incarnation of the Son of God. It was once profoundly formulated by Athanasius of Alexandria: “He, indeed, assumed humanity that we might become God” (On Incarnation). This statement points to several important thoughts.

Sometimes we think of Christ as though He was a Marvel superhero—an ordinary looking person with hidden superpowers He could use when needed. But the incarnation is more than a human appearance shrouding superpowers. The incarnation means that the Son of God has become human. Totally human. With all possible consequences. As we all know too well, to be human means to be limited, dependent and vulnerable. Human life is accompanied with illnesses, sufferings and despair.

Jesus, the Son of God, partook of all these aspects of humanity. In the gospels, we see Him dependent on God the Father, saddened by the brokenness of the world, subject to the decisions of sinful leaders and agonizing to His Father about the difficulties of the way forward. He was one of us. And He still is. This not only gives Jesus a unique capacity to understand us, intercede for us and support us on our way but also builds an eternal bridge between the human and the divine.

By becoming human, the Son of God also revealed to us the invisible and unreachable God. As Emmanuel, “God with us” (Matthew 1:23), He made God known to us, says the Apostle John (John 1:18). It is through Jesus Christ we learn most fully what God is really like and what God’s attitude towards humans is. Jesus has demonstrated God’s tender mercy to those who need a doctor. We have learned about God’s deep compassion towards the depraved and suffering from injustice. In Jesus, we learn about God’s unbreakable faithfulness. In Christ, we can see the Father revealed amid the kinds of realities we face.

Athanasius of Alexandria points out that by assuming humanity, Christ intended to make us capable of seeing His glory. Athanasius’ words do not mean that we turn into gods ourselves. Not at all! He means that, in Christ, the human and divine are eternally connected so, through Christ, we will know and participate in the life of the Triune God.

The Apostle John puts this hope of beatific vision in the category of space: “I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory …” (John 17:24). We do not know exactly where this place is. In fact, it does not even matter, for heaven is wherever God is. What matters is that we will know the fullness of His greatness—i.e., His glory—when Christ “leads his children on to the place where he is gone.”