The Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14).

God is not like us.  Humans are not small gods, and God is not humanity raised to the nth degree.  

So this idea of “being at home” with God, with God “being at home” with us, faces some massive problems for which there are no earthly solutions.  

God is Holy, we are not.  God is Righteous, we are crooked and bent in so many ways we can’t even keep track of them all.  God is Life, we are subject to mortality.  God is Love; we kind of get that, and want that, but sure can’t live it consistently.  You can add to this list of at least a few more of the infinite number of ways to say “God is ___, but we are not!”

There is no natural way home, no natural way to God.  Trying hard and harder is not the way.  Supposedly inevitable scientific and technological progress is not the way.  Better political leaders are not the way.  Each one pursuing his or her private bliss is not the way.  Religion is not the way, being and doing “good” is not the way, anything-goes is not the way.  From our side, there is no way, it is impossible.

If there is to be a way, it must come from God to us.  And because God is not like us, we should be prepared to be astonished and surprised by the way in which God makes his way to us.  

Since we cannot forge our way to God, God must come to us.  And, the Good News of Jesus tells us, God does come, not in a blinding display of glory and power, but in an unfathomable humility.  The Word by whom all things were spoken into being becomes silent, as a baby in the womb is silent.  That Word who is life and light descends into our dark and death-haunted world.  That Word through whom everything was made condescends to being “made” within a young woman’s womb.  

That Word must become one of us.  Not God visiting us, but God becoming one of us, one with us, making his dwelling place among us.  God descends to become a member of the human family in order that we might be raised into the family of God.

The Word became flesh and dwelled among us.  If that happens – when that happens – then anything is possible: sins can be forgiven.  Tears of sorrow and grief may be gently wiped away in anticipation of the Day when Joy and only Joy will be the cause of tears.  Death can be undone.  Ordinary women and men may call God Abba. There may be remedies for all that seems irremediably broken.  Heaven comes down to Earth, comes down for Earth, that Earth might become home for Light and Life and Love.

When God moves into the human neighborhood, something truly new begins.

Is there something about you/your life that have you thought is impossible, but, now that Christ has come, might be possible -- a broken hope, a broken relationship, a broken you? How could you make room for a “new thing” that God will do in and through you?

To read or re-read the overview/summary of this week’s passage, you can click here.