This is post #23 in the Christmas devotional “Christmas Joy.”Read more devotionals by Mel Lawrenz.
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. – 1 John 1:1-2
Beginning. The Beginning. How much we all want to know about the beginning of all things, in order to understand the now of all things, and to pursue the way things are supposed to be in our lives today. The original design must be the ideal, the way things ought to be. The Bible’s opening words: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,” delineate between a time in which there was only God, and a new time in which his magnificent creation began (Gen. 1:1).
The opening words of the Gospel of John place the Son of God right there—at the beginning: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1).
Unlike any other birth, the birth of Jesus was not the beginning of a new life. Rather, one who was there in The Beginning, appeared among his creation through his birth. “The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us” (1 John 1:1-2). This appearance was no dream or vision or apparition, it was an extended visitation, a flood of revelation, an appearance of the Everlasting in terrestrial form, a real life.
“The life appeared.” It was heard; it was seen; it was felt. Bethlehem was not the beginning of the life of Christ, and that’s why his life can change our lives. Jesus said: “Before Abraham was born, I AM.”
“I AM”: I always was, I am now, and I will always be. That is why he can connect us with our original purpose.
God reached out to the human race in a new way in Bethlehem. Whereas in the past God spoke through the words of prophets, a new channel of God’s communication was opened in Bethlehem. God “has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word” (Heb. 1:2-3).
So Christmas is about the good beginning (Genesis 1), and it is about the rescue of the now (John 1). That means that Jesus will help us regain everything that a human life was supposed to be in the first place—a real relationship with God, real wisdom, real character, real virtue. He intends to restore the image of God in our humanness.
Prayer for today:
Lord, I acknowledge that you are the only one who can begin something new in my life. Thank you for the appearance of Jesus, “the life.” Help me to be a true disciple.
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