Good morning. This is the first of a number of brief posts I'll be writing as we enter the Christmas season. I think it's fitting to start with a reflection on a verse that even my beginning Greek students can read with ease, John 1:14a.
If you wanted to summarize Christmas, you couldn't do better that this. "The Word became flesh." Christmas in four words. The Word is introduced to us in verse 1. The Word is not a thing but a Person. He's older than the universe. And everything exists because the Word spoke it into being. This Word is the Logic, the Reason, the Grammar, the Operating System (OS) of all reality. And this Word became a human being. Think about it. All the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in a little baby. A child in a feeding trough "fills the skies" (Augustine). "A stable once held something inside that was bigger than the whole world" (C. S. Lewis).
"The Word became flesh." God is not silent after all. He has spoken to us. Christmas tells us that we can find all the answers to our questions in a human being, God in the flesh. "All the Christmas presents in the world are worth nothing without the presence of Christ" (David Jeremiah).
Merry Christmas!