As I was recently eating dinner with a group of teachers in the San Francisco Bay area, the conversation turned to religion. This particular conversation tended to engage my observation more than my participation. As the conversation turned to consideration of Jesus, the purpose of his life was soon discussed. "Jesus came because God just wanted to know what it was like to be human," was the idea proposed. Several people nodded in agreement. Another added, "It's kind of like if you were playing dolls and you decided to become one of those dolls just to see what it was like."
While I was somewhat surprised that there was a fairly confident agreement that Jesus was somehow God, I couldn't help but think that it's easy to get things backward. As much as it is incredible that God humbled himself to take on the form of man and experience life as a man, God's purpose in coming was far more meaningful than that.
In fact, I believe it would be more accurate to say that Jesus came because we needed to know what it is like to be God. Not that we could be God, but that we could once again be His children. Jesus showed us what we had been, what Adam had been created to be: simply one who does the Father's will.