Thursday 31 December 2020

Today is Thursday the 31 December, in the season of Christmas.  

Audrey Assad sings ‘Immanuel’s Land’.

John 1:14-18

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” ’) From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.  

On this last day of the year, we hear today from the Prologue of John’s Gospel how ‘the Word became flesh and lived among us.’ God in Jesus chose to become fully human: to become flesh and blood and live in our midst as one of us. As you pause at the end of this strange and difficult year, what is your reaction to this message? What does God becoming flesh and living among us mean to you?  

What about God does Jesus make known to you? Is there something in your life, in this year, that has made God known to you?  

‘No one has ever seen God’ yet Jesus ‘who is close to the Father’s heart’ has made him known. As you listen again to the reading, notice your response to this bold statement.  

However you find yourself now, allow yourself to be drawn into conversation with the God who becomes human and lives among us. What do you most need or desire at the end of this year? What does God want you to know? To receive?  

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.