Robert Louis Stevenson once gave a rather odd gift to a friend’s daughter, Annie, who had the misfortune to have been born on Christmas, and every Christmas complained that she never got to have her own birthday party. So Robert Louis Stevenson drew up a legal document transferring all the rights and privileges of his birthday, which fell on November thirteenth, to her. From that day on, Annie celebrated her birthday on November thirteen.
Robert Louis Stevenson was not the first to transfer all his ‘rights and privileges’ to someone else. In a sense Jesus became mortal that he might transfer some of his immortality to us. He became human that he might transfer the spark of divinity to us. Saint Athanasius put it this way: ‘He became what we are that we might become what he is.’