“And the Word was made flesh, and lived among us.” – John 1:14
I am reflecting on Jesus as the Word of God this year. Surrounded by words and images every day that compete for my time and attention, here is a different kind of Word. The words of the world are insubstantial; this Word takes on flesh and lives.
That Word is still living among us today. It does not compete for my attention in the same way that the words of my social media feed, the daily news, or my endless text threads and WhatsApp groups do. No alert buzzes on my AppleWatch when Jesus is present.
But when I open my eyes to that Word, when I see the Word enfleshed in my neighbor, when I feel and experience the love for that neighbor that drives my love for God–I remember afresh that this Word truly is alive.
GK Chesterton, of English witticism and wisdom, wrote in The Everlasting Man, “A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.”
I feel the temptation to be swept along with the stream of news, culture, and sin… but it is the living Word who inspires me, who leads me to swim upstream, and to find the alternative.
This year, this Christmas, may the living Word help us to resist the stream, and follow the call to holiness.