When I was a little girl, I remember talking to my dad about when he was a kid. To my finite, young mind, it was unfathomable that the man standing in front of me had even been young, let along a kid at some time in the past. Because I had not seen it or experienced it, I could not comprehend it. In so many ways our spiritual life can be like this. God is and has always been. God is all knowing. God is in all places. These truths are impossible for us to fully grasp, because we live in a physical world, where everything has a beginning and an end. How reassuring it is that God is not like us. I love the poetic imagery that John uses in this first chapter, even though I feel like I am going around in circles at times (like when he reports John the Baptist as saying “he who comes after me surpasses me because he was before me”…wait…what?). John reveals a beauty of Christ that is not conveyed in the other gospels.
(Vs. 4 and 5) In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Here John reveals not only that Jesus is God, but that he is the creator of all things. He gave physical life to the world at creation. He then became flesh, physically alive on earth, and he sacrificed this life to become the light to all mankind.
(Vs. 9 and 10) The true light gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
Jesus, who created flesh, became flesh to be rejected by his creation. As we look at scripture, sometimes it is so easy to point fingers and say how ignorant those people were. Jesus was undoubtedly the Son of God. Look at all the evidence he provided, etc. But if we are not careful, we could be repeating the same mistakes. God is alive, Jesus is the light, and the Holy Spirit is working among us. I will admit that is it not always easy for me to see where God is working, because I short change God trying to understand the “How” or second guess what I see. But, I do not want to be a person who has the creator of the world in front of her and I don’t recognize him.
As we move into this season of prayer and fasting, I welcome you and encourage you to open your eyes and heart to God’s workings in the world all around you. We say that he is active, but do you believe it? My prayer is that in this season, we will be a people who look for God’s movement, expect to see/feel/experience God is new and exciting ways, and that we will shine his life giving light into our world.
Beautifully written! I loved this scene from the show as well.
Teach us, good Lord, to serve you as you deserve; to give, and not to count the cost, to fight, and not to heed the wounds, to toil, and not to seek for rest, to labor, and not to ask for reward, except that of knowing that we are doing your will.” From Ignatius of Loyola . May we allow this season to so transform us