In the Beginning (the Remix)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. – John 1: 1-5, 14

Today’s Reading: 2 Kings 7-9: John 1:1-28

Wow… what an opening line!

Let’s flash back to the very beginning for a second. This is an interesting twist on the first “In the Beginning”.

Remember the original creation story where God said let there be light and it was? Then God continued on to speak things into existence; the sea, the earth, plants, animals, etc?

The way that John is flipping it here is pretty profound. He’s saying that Jesus is the word of God. But what does that mean? I don’t think that anyone can definitively say but let me share with you my train of thought here…

So, God created everything through speaking it and Jesus on earth was the “Word of God” in the form of a man. Jesus walked the earth providing us with the perfect model for how we are supposed to live our lives. He performed miracles that healed, fed, and nurtured. Any time his disciples’ faith wavered he clowned them for having little faith. He suggested that we could do all that he did here (in terms of healing, miracles etc).

In essence… Jesus provided the example for how we can be the word of God…

Now before you holy rollers get all worked up into a tizzy…here’s what I mean.

When we look at the history of humanity we see that humans have the ability to build or destroy. We have evolved in both ways. As society has moved forward we have created new and more efficient ways of doing both things. We have developed agriculture to the point of being able to feed billions with just a few resources; very much like how Jesus fed thousands with a few loaves of bread and fish. On the other hand, we have created weapons that with the push of a button can destroy life on this planet as we know it.

We cannot create a blade of grass but we can nurture it so that it grows, or we can stomp it out and destroy it.

Jesus came to teach us how to nurture, how to build, how to heal. He came here to teach us how to love. It is through the love of God that all things were created and Jesus was the greatest teacher of that love.

So I see these few cryptic verses as a challenge to do my part to spread that love.

If God is love, then when we show love, we are messengers of God. We are active parts of God’s ever evolving creation.