In the 2002 romantic comedy, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," Toula and Ian fall in love and want to get married. The problem is, Toula and her family are Greek, her father wants her to marry a Greek man, and Ian is not Greek. Ian wants to show Toula how much he loves her. He wants to share his life with her; he wants to share in everything that makes her her. He will do anything to be with her forever. So, he decides to become Greek.
In the scene of Ian's baptism into the Greek Church, the priest prays and dunks Ian's head under water three times. Toula and her brother Nicko are standing nearby, watching. Toula murmurs to her brother, "I'm just waiting for him to stop the ceremony and say to me, 'You are so not worth this.'" Nicko looks over at her, smiles, and says, "Yes you are."
Though there's an obvious difference of scale between them, we may draw an analogy between this part of the movie and Jesus' coming to Earth. God loves YOU so much that He became one of us; He shared in our humanity in every way except sin. Jesus, 'Immanuel,' 'God With Us,' lived among us and showed us His Love. He wants you to be with Him for all eternity and so He offered Himself as a sacrifice for you and for your salvation. While we prepare to celebrate Christmas, we also see His cross and resurrection. Through them, Jesus showed us that Love is more powerful than evil, and that even death itself couldn't put an end to Him -- His Spirit is still with us. In all of this, He lets us know, 'I'm doing this for YOU. I love you so much that I want you to be with Me forever. I'm offering Myself for you. You are so worth it.'
"No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven -- the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." --John 3:13-17
"Lord, thank You for becoming one of us and crushing the power of death. Help me to love as You love."
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