God on the Dock

One of the topics Mack and Jesus discuss on the dock is introduced when Jesus says, "My purpose from the beginning was to live in you and you in me." Mack responds by asking, "If you're still fully human, how can you be inside me?"

We just blow by this idea as we talk about being Christian. Having Jesus in your heart is one of those church-phrases we toss around, especially when we're talking to children about faith. I've often wondered, as Mack does, how that really works. What do we mean by the phrase? I suspect, like a lot of church-speak, we don't really mean anything by it. It's a generic code phrase for being saved (more good church-speak) and choosing to live as we believe Jesus would want us to live.

December 7: Found this video that illustrates one of the several things people mean by "Christ in you" (Colossians 1:27)

In The Shack, Jesus suggests this is a real indwelling, one person literally living inside another, not just a metaphor of some sort. Somehow we are created so as to allow for this added life to coexist with our life in one physical body. I don't know why, but this seems to me to fit in the same category as I put demon possession and such things. Good for making scary movies, apparently supported by Bible stories, but bordering on superstition. I don't know if I'm willing to call it fantasy, but it sure doesn't fit well into my orderly engineer's worldview.

Am I missing something here?