Daily Worship

Word become flesh

Katy Emslie-Smith December 08, 2021 0 1
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Luke 1: 34-37 (NIVUK)

34 ‘How will this be,’ Mary asked the angel, ‘since I am a virgin?’

35 The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.’

Mary’s question “How can it be for I am a virgin?” takes us to a threshold. We should really take off our shoes here for we enter holy ground. Mary’s question leads us in to explore the wide mystery of God becoming human, Word become flesh, God coming to live as one of us.

The maker of all life cleaves into the double helix of DNA, the building block of all life. God Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, submits to the vulnerability of the earliest point of human existence, the fission of cells deep in the dark and complex space of a human womb. He takes the risk of birth and makes himself dependent for life on the life of another whom he formed.

God, in Jesus, has lived the entire human journey from conception to death. He honours all human life by having shared it. Further he adds glory to glory, as Easter meets Christmas, with the gift of eternal life.

There is a kind of abandonment, when we find ourselves in the place of awe, where we reach the limits of our own understanding, and simply believe Gabriel’s words “With God, nothing is impossible.”

May we enjoy the discoveries of truth to be found in Christmas mystery, not seeking to tether down every answer but rather, in exploring the horizons of belief, find our faith deepened.

PRAYER:

Lord,

This Christmas may we all find pause, a time of peace, a quiet time to stop and consider the wonder that Jesus, the Word who brought all things into life, became flesh and dwelt among us in human life. In the pause, may we see His glory, full of grace and truth. May we understand more deeply what it means that God is with us, Immanuel.