I thought I would share a bit of what I shared yesterday morning about the Word becoming flesh and living with us.
John 1:14 – The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
The Word became flesh – that Word that was with God and was God from the very beginning. That Word that spoke all things into being; who was involved in the creation of all things; that Word who sits outside of time stepped into the middle of time – – and moved in down the street. He made his dwelling among us!
John tells us that when Jesus – the Word – became flesh, we could see him and not only him but the glory of the Father, the one true God. Jesus proclaimed in John 14:9 that “anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”
In Matthew 1 we find that one of the names of Jesus is Immanuel – which means God with us. GOD WITH US!
GOD – the ultimate being
WITH – right here right now
US – you and me.
Have you seen him today?
You may be thinking, “define what you mean by seeing him.” Have you seen evidence of his presence? Have you experienced his closeness?
These God with us moments still happen today. John tells us that when the Word became flesh, not only did everyone get to see him, they got to see God’s grace and truth as well. We can experience this grace and truth everyday – still.
Have you seen him? Have you experienced him? The fact is that God is always with us – we simply fail to notice most of the time.
Many of us have experienced and seen his movement in different ways. Often we experience him – see him – in nature: a beautiful sunrise or sunset, or in the majesty of standing on the sand and looking at the expanse of his creation in the ocean.
Sometimes we experience and see him with different life events – the birth of a child or the passing of a parent – or in the simple touch of holding the hand of that special someone in our lives.
In those God with us moments, we sense that the Word has truly become flesh and we experience his grace and truth.
That’s one of the reasons we celebrate and set this time aside each year – TO PAUSE – to pay attention – and to truly live in these God with us moments.
When we devote our undivided attention to seeing the Word become flesh in our lives, we are changed. We gain strength, encouragement and hope; all of which come when we surrender to the Word become flesh – the Son of God – Immanuel – God with us – Jesus!
Take time to notice him today!
ell, that took me down a 30 minute sidetrack to get it going again. And in the midst of feeling some wrinkles developing on my brow, I received an email that caused some frustration and I had to turn some attention to it.
This would not have been a great assignment for an angel except for one thing – the message they were sent to deliver. Gabriel and others were tasked with making their way to earth to let people know the very son of the one, true God was to be born – the savior of the world was on his way!
We began an Advent emphasis this past Sunday we are calling The Journey To the Manger. As we approach the celebration of the Christmas Day event, we are taking a look each week at different people who made their own journeys to that stable. The shepherds, the wise men and even Mary and Joseph all made the trek to Bethlehem because of the same event – the birth of the King. All came from different directions and circumstances but their journeys all ended the same – in worship of Jesus.
“Don’t look at me!”
The purpose of the email was to tell him how much he means to me and to thank him for the impact he has made in my life. I remember sending the email but I had to go back and dig up the email to remember what I had said. In that email I shared with him that I had had lunch with a wonderful man earlier that day who made the statement that he was tired of learning about people at their funerals and we all need to do a better job of appreciating people while they are still with us. I was so touched by his words that day that I was inspired to reach out to a number of people who have poured into me over the years.
Clay in the Hands 