Annie
Scriptures: John 1:1-14 Genesis 1 Luke 1:26-56 Colossians 2:9
“The Word became flesh”.
Just four little words, that’s all, but four words that declare the most astounding moment this world has ever known. In this season of Advent, let us put aside the usual images we associate with Christ’s birth, the stable, the shepherds, the wee baby in the feeding trough. Instead, let us explore the incredible Grace and Mercy that God extends to this world of sinners in those four words.
How do we even begin to try and fathom with our puny understanding, the depth of what those words, written by the Apostle John, actually mean? We need to go back to the first book of the Bible and read, with eyes and hearts open to a fresh revelation of what happened in what we call creation. A literal translation reads “In the beginning of God's preparing the heavens and the earth”. There was no experimentation in God’s creation, He was beginning His meticulously prepared and intricately detailed plan for the community that would know Him forever. He prepared this planet, the countless flora and fauna, day and night, oceans and land masses, for His most precious creation – humankind. The Word spoke, and the preparation was revealed in all its beauty. Then, thousands of years later, the Word assured us all, as He was leaving this world, that He had to go and once again prepare a place for us, our eternal home, forever with Him in Glory.
The same Word who spoke the Earth’s creation into being, is the same Word who became flesh and lived for 33 years as fully human, yet always God. He is the self existent One, who is God, and who is with God, as one Being yet three Persons. The pure Revelation of God, His Truth, His Wisdom, His Nature, was revealed for all to see in the Word made flesh. God is pure unchangeable Being, the same yesterday, today and forever. God does not become anything, He simply and categorically is, yet He chose to become a man, fully man, while always being fully God. The Word revealed God as our personal God, not some distant force or nebulous power, but individually our God.
Time began with creation, therefore whoever exists before creation, exists eternally. Jesus declared His eternal existence when He said “Before Abraham was, I AM”, which induced such anger in the religious Jews. The Word was God, always has been God and always will be God. There is a supernatural reality in the message that John explains to us that is so important for us to understand, because the non-negotiable reality that we celebrate at this time of the year is that the eternal God, the infinite, all-knowing, all-powerful, all present, everlastingly unchanging, eternal God of the universe became a human being. That is the true Christmas message.
Charles Wesley wrote these words in his wonderful carol “Hark the Herald Angels sing”:“Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, Hail the Incarnate Deity,Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus our Immanuel” Immanuel – God with us. This is at the core of true Christianity, that Jesus came as the Word made flesh, the Christ, the Son of the Living God, God here on earth living with humankind. When we believe this with our whole being, then we can begin to live, right here and now, in the Life He bought for us.
Prayer: Abba Father, open the eyes of our hearts to grasp the wonder and pure love that You feel for the race that You placed in this home You prepared for us as time began. The love that caused the Word to become flesh and dwell among us. OH, Father, thank You, in the Name of Your Son, and by the Power of Holy Spirit, thank You. Amen
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