The Word became flesh

I am coming home from a great week in St. Louis with my head and heart swimming in ideas and possibilities. I have been stretched and challenged both personally and with regards to our ministry. I have heard from other ministers who God is obviously speaking through.
If I had to choose one word that I am bringing home this week, I think I would choose incarnation. This idea that God lived as a man is probably best described by the Apostle John…
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 were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-5,14)
One of the unique and beautiful aspects of Christianity is that God becomes one of us. He enters the world in human form to show his grace and truth.
Later in the same gospel, Jesus prays for you and me, and in that prayer he invites us to join Him, although in a different way, to be an incarnation, humans in which God lives…
“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:20-26)
The beauty of God’s plan is that after God became flesh and dwelt among us, He invited man to allow God to dwell in each of us. When we are baptized and receive the Holy Spirit, we invite God to live in us, and we offer our lives as a continuation of the Jesus story.
The incarnation is more than just an amazing story about a God who chose to dwell among men. It is also an amazing story about a God who wants to live within and among us. It is your story and my story. It is our story. It is the story that is the foundation of our relationships, our community, and ultimately, the foundation of our lives.

shine!
Jason