The Christmas story is well known to most of us; all four Gospels in the Bible tell the story of Jesus’ arrival on the earth as a baby. But John’s Gospel gives us the most succinct description of Christ’s arrival on earth: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14).

Those eight words say it all. It’s unfathomable, but God became one of us.

Those same eight words, applied in the lives of Jesus’ followers, are the best recipe for world transformation. Jesus took His intimate relationship with the Father and then lived it out among people — and so must we. There is no other way. Effective spiritual multiplication happens when those two relationships (with God, and with people) are integrated into our lives.

Crossworld workers Hank and Jillian are doing just that. In preparation for taking their professions overseas to live and make disciples among the least-reached, they decided that they need to live among the people they want to reach — now. So even while they’re here in the U.S., they’ve moved out of their comfortable suburban home and into an apartment block where their neighbors are predominantly immigrants. Not surprisingly, the property manager wondered why they would do this. Humanly speaking, it makes no sense! Hank and Jillian were able to explain that they serve a God who loves immigrants and strangers, the helpless and the poor. Because He loves them, Hank and Jillian love them, too.

Just as Hank and Jillian’s decision made no earthly sense, neither did Jesus’ incarnation. God taking on flesh and living among His creation makes no sense. But that unfathomable love changed the world — and it still does.

Dale Losch joined Crossworld as a disciple-maker in France in 1988, and has served as Crossworld’s president since 2009. He loves to motivate people to use their God-given passions to make disciples wherever life happens. Hear more from Dale.