Reflections at Christmas 10

John 1:13-14, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness of Him crying out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.’”

God – the Light, the Way, the Word – stepped down from heaven’s throne, clothing Himself with mortality, to eat and drink, laugh and cry, and live among us. He walked among His defiled creation and, in His infinite love, gave of Himself, allowing us the privilege of beholding His glory in all of its brilliant perfection and purity. Indeed, it remains the same today. He lacks nothing, continuing to show us the Father, and His glory is reality manifested with merciful kindness towards us.

His glory is “full of grace and truth.” Not one without the other, but perfectly balanced. Truth without grace leaves us hopeless; truth with grace redeems. And we, who have been confronted by truth and are recipients of His grace, understand how glorious and incomprehensible it is that the God of the Universe continues with us, abiding with us, our Emmanuel.

He is the Alpha. How unfathomable His love for you and me, that we are invited to partake of the Life of the Preexistent One! How comforting that He is also the Omega – the Last. Nothing in His Life ends, and nothing in ours can separate us from Him! Not angels or principalities, not anything we will face today or tomorrow, nothing above, beside, below or behind us, can remove us from the love of the Father that we have found in living in Christ our Lord!