“Use your words.” I never thought to compare the God who rules the universe with a pre-verbal toddler, struggling to make herself understood, but that’s what came to mind as I thought about the holy mystery at the heart of Christmas:
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…
Why was the Incarnation of God’s Son necessary? In part, because of a communications breakdown. Humankind could not understand the language in which God was speaking. We could not understand who God was. God had to use his Word – and give that Word flesh and send that Word to “pitch tent” among us and sojourn with us for a time, so that he could make God known to us.
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.
The human Jesus himself is worthy of our interest and attention and devotion. But if we forget that all that love and power and mercy and holiness and desire for justice was revealing to us who God is, we miss more than half the point. Jesus, the Son “close to the Father’s heart,” was about demonstrating how things work in the realm of God, the Life of God. He was showing us God, making God known.
At Christmas we celebrate God made known in the most vulnerable of states – and yet powerful enough to command the attention of kings and angels. And, I hope, compelling enough to command our attention and love, in this season when we celebrate his wondrous birth.
God has used is Word to make God’s love known. Today, and every day, we can use our words to make God’s love known to one another, to draw each other closer to the Father’s heart.
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