“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people…And the Word became flesh and lived among us.” John 1:1-4, 14
This Christmas story doesn’t have a manger, a baby, angels, or sheep. It doesn’t lend itself easily to a children’s Christmas pageant, or a decoration, or even a catchy Christmas song.
What this story does have, however, is a clear, decisive, unwavering declaration of God’s everlasting and persistent desire to be in loving relationship with the entire cosmos. It is story that starts at the beginning of time itself and will not end until the full flourishing of the Tree of Life in the realized kin-dom of God. It is a story that has a name and a face: Emmanuel, God-with-us.
This story of love, longing, creation and life is embodied in the Word of God made flesh, Jesus Christ, who has come into our broken, brittle, battered world to hold and heal it; to save it. To hold and heal you; to save you.
The Word has become flesh; the Creator has united with creation; God has bound Godself in love to you, forever. Love has come, love is born, love wins—now and always.
Joy to the world, indeed. Joy to you, joy to us all.