1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
John 1:1-5 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
There is a moment that I picture in the story of the birth of Jesus. It is the moment that Mary and Joseph first look in to the eyes of Jesus, their human eyes looking into the eyes of divinity and humanity together. What does it mean to look in to the eyes of one who is born so fully human that prosaic things like diapers and bottles are still needed? What does it mean to look into the eyes of one who is so fully divine that angels surround and proclaim his divinity in his prenatal and natal days? What is it like to hold a child like this? In a world of possibilities, in a world of impossibilities – for this moment, which the songs proclaim ‘calm’, the unimaginable turning point of the world has begun. At Christmas, I hope you have a few moments to breathe in all that this moment was, is, and will be in your own life. Grace pours out to make us each both Christ and human to each other – and it is in relationships, in the eye to eye contact of seeing our humanity and our divinity, and our possibilities – that God’s love reigns anew in our lives.
I wish you the peace that comes from this moment, the hope that comes from this moment, and the joy that comes from this moment – and may you love others with those graces even more than you do today. Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!
Sarah