Tami’s Meandering Thoughts

“The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone.” John 1:4

“So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness.” John 1:14a

When I was in elementary school my mom let me take a ceramics class at the YMCA on Saturday mornings. Every week I eagerly participated in the process of creating a masterpiece. I picked out the ceramic statue I wanted to paint, used my creative juices to make this the best piece around, shellacked it, and baked it. Then it was done. Each piece took a few weeks to complete except for one. One week, at the end of the course, I didn’t quite have time to complete the entire process so I just picked a pedestal cup, shellacked it and baked it. Absolutely none of my artistic flare evidenced on that one! Now comes the humbling part. Which one do I still have? That one white cup. As I grew older I realized that my elementary school “artistic flare” was far from beautiful, and each piece ended up in the garbage. Except the one that I didn’t actually add anything to! The one that had none of me poured into it is the one that is the most beautiful. I still laugh about that. Thankfully I did not create the world – it probably would have turned out in monochrome! However, God has amazing artistic flare. As I read John 1 today I was again amazed at Jesus’ majesty in his creativeness.

How many times have you read John 1? I have read it, heard it preached, memorized it…But today, reading it slowly in a different version hit me differently. I’ll put it here. Take a minute and read it – really read it, and remember that “the Word” is Jesus Christ who died for you and me.

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.

John 1:1-5

As I read that, I was struck with Jesus’ majesty as he lived in Heaven before he created earth. He encompassed everything and existed everywhere. Then he created our world and gave everything life. He poured his creative juices into this small area of the universe. As a being who surpasses any of our comprehension of 3-Dimensional space, He just dabbled his hand in a bit of artistic flare here on a sphere we call earth. Wow. Then I kept reading.

So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. John 1:14

I know when I’ve gained weight because it is hard to squeeze into some of my pants. There’s just too much of me to fit into the pants! How in the world did Jesus, creator of the universe, artist extraordinaire squeeze himself into a human body? What did that feel like?

I know we talk about Jesus being born as a human, Jesus living on earth, Jesus dying, Jesus rising from the dead. Sometimes we talk about it so much I think we miss the awesomeness of that. Today I again was awed by his sacrifice. I can’t image how the creator felt squeezing himself into a human body, walking among and even being spit at by his creation. And yet, he was filled with “unfailing love and faithfulness.” Wow.