To spell out the wonder of the birth of the Christ child in Bethlehem, John starts his gospel with the originator of all that is and will be.

For we are not given to worship an idea or a legend, but the word made flesh.

John uses the term ‘logos’ from which we get logic, rationale. This is the reason for creation; the logic that gives all that is and was and is to be. Yet it is not a neat, boxed explanation amidst the cold starlight.

The word is a living pulsing reality alive now. Look at the hand that holds this. Sinew and skin sheath bones which are unique. There’s never been a hand like your hand. Every man, woman and child who ever lived is different, individual. Our divine importance is testified by unique DNA codes, fingerprints and voice pattern.

Who did this, we may ask? I AM, comes the answer. Tell them I AM sent you, God says to Moses. The explanation for all matter and life created us personally. Man and woman created he them. At Christmas this mystery takes flesh and there we find him, a baby in a manger. 

All life is sacred, part of the unfolding hymn to the wonders he has prepared for those who love him.

For this explanation, which men called God, is here with us now. His name is Jesus, his title, Emmanuel, which means God with us. Later he will tell his friends, ‘Before Abraham was born, I AM.’   Christmas Day 2023