A Blessed Christmas.

Christmas is here, a pastor writing for Bible & Life helps us to meditate on the words of John's Gospel: "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us" (John 1:4).  Jesus is the Word a very  meaning-filled  'nick name'  that fills us with awe. Poets often use metaphors in their  poetry and here we have a metaphor that is more than a metaphor.

"In the beginning was the Word; the Word was in God's presence, and the Word was God. " This is the way the Gospel of John begins. A very mysterious existent being who was with God  before the  creation of the world.  "Through him all things came into being, and apart from him nothing came to be."  God had an assistant  at the Creation of the world. We accept this being as Jesus Christ.  "He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creatures. In him everything  in heaven and  on earth was created" (Col. 1:15-16). In I Cor. 8:6, " For there is one God...and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom everything was made and through whom we live."  Jesus is called the word and we can see this prepared in the Jewish Wisdom literature.

In Proverbs 8:22, Wisdom is of divine origin. It existed before all things.  In Sirach 24: 3-9, we have Wisdom coming from God and is distinct from him.  In the Book of Wisdom: God of my fathers, Lord of mercy, you who have made all  things by your word (Wis. 9:1). And in Revelation 21: "This is God's dwelling among men. He shall dwell with them and they shall be his people and he shall be their God..." The writer continues in this vein but at the end says it is perfectly alright to forget this complicated explanation of the Word in the Wisdom literature.  God's Word. God's Son, God himself came to the earth.

Sufficient it is to remember that God became a human because he loved us. We should never forget this. God found a resting place among us. Humanity was overjoyed  and is there anything that expresses the meaning of Christmas more clearly.

In the history of humanity there have been all kinds of words uttered about God many of them empty words.  Jesus came as the definitive Word of God and we need to indelibly inscribe this on our minds and hearts. A word that does not include God, a word that doesn't come from God, a word that only remains a  word with no flesh are all empty words.

Jesus was the one in which life and wisdom were united. He is the one that told us openly to eat him. Empty words are cheap and are scattered every which way when troubles come. Only Jesus the true man and true word came to embrace us.  A Blessed Christmas