Jesus - the ultimate avatar

While I was watching the movie "Avatar" recently, I couldn't help thinking that Jesus was the ultimate avatar.

An avatar is a representation of a real person in an environment or world different from, but parallel to, their own.  The avatar takes on the likeness of those in the parallel world, living with them and as they do, yet remains connected to and controlled by their real self.  That real self remains invisible to the people of the other world and connects with them solely through the avatar.

In "Avatar", Jake Sully, though an invalid in his real world, is able to live a full and heroic physical life through his avatar in the world of Pandora.  His avatar was able to do anything that Jake required of it by being controlled through Jake's thoughts and ambitious plans.

(We also have avatars in the computer world which are small images used in internet forums and larger ones used in video games to represent and identify their members and players.)

Jesus was God's avatar on earth, the parallel world he created.  The only way God could save humankind was to come to earth as a human, live as a perfect human, pay the death penalty for humankind's sin as a human, and rise from the dead - the ultimate avatar in the world of humans.

It was clear, not only from what he said, but from what he did and how he did it, that Jesus was indeed God in avatar (human) form.

Paul reveals that "The Son is the image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1 : 15) and " in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form." (Colossians 2 : 9).
John, in introducing his gospel, said, "No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known." (John 1 : 18).
In a similar way, the author of Hebrews in his introduction says, "The Son is the radiance of God's glory, and the exact representation of his being ... " (Hebrews 1 : 3)

All of these echoed Jesus' own admissions that he and the Father were one (John 10 : 30) and that those who had seen him had seen the Father as well (John 14 : 9).

And so God lived with us in our world, doing for us what we couldn't do for ourselves, and thus created the gateway for all of his creation to eventually live in fellowship with him forever.