Incarnation means “In-flesh” and refers to the fact that God became flesh and “moved into the neighborhood” of this earth. Read John 1: 14- 18 in The Message translation and listen to what Eugene Peterson has to say about the Incarnation:
The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
the one-of-a-kind glory,
like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
true from start to finish.
15John pointed him out and called, “This is the One! The One I told you was coming after me but in fact was ahead of me. He has always been ahead of me, has always had the first word.”
We all live off his generous bounty,
gift after gift after gift.
We got the basics from Moses,
and then this exuberant giving and receiving,
This endless knowing and understanding—
all this came through Jesus, the Messiah.
No one has ever seen God,
not so much as a glimpse.
This one-of-a-kind God-Expression,
who exists at the very heart of the Father,
has made him plain as day.”
“‘No one has ever seen God’ (verse 18) but we do see his glory,the bright splendor that marks God’s presence. We saw it at Sinai, in the tabernacle. We saw it in Jerusalem, at the Temple. But most of all, we saw it in Jesus.
So when John tells us that Jesus, the flesh and blood Jesus that everyone can see ‘moved into the neighborhood’ (verse 14), he clearly means us to understand that Jesus is the new Tabernacle and Temple of the Hebrew people. But what’s so striking is that Jesus isn’t like an architectural structure waiting for us to come to him. Instead, he comes to us.
Do you want to see God present among you? Do you want to come into the presence of God and worship him? Here he’s making himself at home among you: Jesus — pitching his tent, building his home, and moving into the neighborhood.
YOUR neighborhood!” Eugene Peterson, Conversations: The Message Bible with Its Translator