Advent Reader: In The Beginning

John 1:1-5
At the start of Advent, the run up to the birth of Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, in the opening verses of the Gospel of John there's no sign of any star or wise men, not a whisper of Mary and Joseph, not a flurry of angels, and not a whiff of a manger in a stable. Rather than starting at Jesus’ human conception, as other writers do, John starts at the very beginning, at the conception of everything. "In the beginning". In the beginning He, Jesus, the Word, was with God and was God. Part of God, but distinct from Him.

John gets straight to the essential point: God, through whom the world was made, the One who gives light to everyone, became a human being. God, in Jesus, lived among us and died among us, and for us. Let that sink in; God, the Creator, lived among us and died among us, and for us.

Not only was Jesus the Word, the representative of God, He was also the representation of God: the one whose origins lie uniquely in the very being of God was also God’s own glory, shining with life-giving light into a world darkened by sin.

At the beginning of this Advent, let’s keep the main thing as the main thing; the reality of The Word living among us.