“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.”
John 1:1-2 NIV
Step into the stable, and cradle in your arms the infant Jesus, still moist from the womb, just wrapped in the rags. Run a finger across his chubby cheek, and listen as one who knew him well puts lyrics to the event:
“In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1 NIV).
The words “In the beginning” take us to the beginning. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1 NIV). The baby Mary held was connected to the dawn of time. He saw the first ray of sunlight and heard the first crash of a wave. The baby was born, the Word never was.
“All things were made through him” 1 Corinthians 8:6 NCV) Not by him, through him. Jesus didn’t fashion the world out of raw material he found. He created all things out of nothing.
Jesus: the Genesis Word, “the firstborn over all creation” (Colossians 1:15 NIV). He is the “one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things were created and through whom we live” (1 Corinthians 8:6 NLT).
And then, what no theologian conceived, what no rabbi dared to dream, God did. “The Word became flesh” (John 1:14 NIV). The Artist became oil on his own palette. The Potter melted into the mud on his own wheel. God became an embryo in the belly of a village girl. Christ in Mary. God in Christ.
Max Lucado, God Is With Us Everyday, December 23. Used by permission.
Living Bread 