Word Became Flesh

WORD BECAME FLESH

a prayer to open

Here I am, Lord, in my tired, aging, hurting, wondrous body.

Open my heart to you now. You are my High Priest who knows.

In the beginning the Word already existed.

The Word was with God,

and the Word was God.

He existed in the beginning with God.

God created everything through him,

and nothing was created except through him.

The Word gave life to everything that was created,

and his life brought light to everyone.

The light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness can never extinguish it.

God sent a man, John the Baptist, to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light. The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.

So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.

The eternal Son of God, in communion with the Father and the Spirit forever, lowered himself, humbled himself, and embodied himself in order to save us. Oh that we could remember this truth when we relate to, call on, live in, and share Jesus. If we could somehow prevent ourselves from thinking of him as a disembodied spirit who is far from us and unable to know all the pain and joy we experience in our bodies, how might our images of our own bodies change? How might we better care for ourselves? How might we grow in respect for the bodies of others, seeing them as sacred and specially made by God instead of things to be used or abused, as is so often the case? May we always remember that God came in the flesh, in a body, and to this very moment Jesus has a body.

• Having spent the past fifteen days focusing on the truth of God’s coming in the flesh to be with us, what happens in you when you read this rich, well-known announcement about Jesus Christ?
• How have these fifteen days influenced your view and understanding of your own body?
• Reflect on the reality that the Word—the eternal Son of God—became flesh and made his dwelling among us. What does this truth reveal to you about God’s love? What does it reveal about Jesus’ ability to identify with you?

Jesus Christ—

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace;

the one through whom and for whom all things were made; and

the one in whom I live and move and have my being—

you became flesh and made your dwelling among us.

And nothing—neither death nor life, angels nor demons, the present nor the future; not any powers, height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation—can separate me from the love of our God, which is in you, Jesus Christ my Lord.