Today's Meditation - Monday, August 3, 2020

Today's Meditation

Read John 1:1-18

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being ⁴in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.

⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. ⁶There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. ⁸He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. ⁹The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. ¹⁰He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. ¹¹He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. ¹²But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, ¹³who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. ¹⁴And 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.

¹⁵(John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”) ¹⁶From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. ¹⁷The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸No 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 opening to John's gospel is such a beautiful, poetic, and powerful telling of the origins and nature of Jesus Christ.  Christ was in the beginning.  Christ is the Word of God.  Through the Son, God created all things.  Christ is life and light, itself.  This Anointed One is full of grace and truth.  This Light shines in the darkness, and NOTHING can overcome it.  Christ came into the world, to be part of the world.  Christ came to his own, but his own did not accept him.  So, all those who do receive him, all those who do believe in him, they are called Children of God.

This Christ, this Savior, this Eternal Light and Life is the fullness of all things.  From this fullness, we have received grace upon grace.

John manages to boil down all of scripture, the story of God with us, from beginning to end in these first 18 verses of his gospel.  What else is needed?  What else could we possibly ask for or want?  What else is there to know?

May the wonder of God's creation, through the glory of the Son, and the power of the Holy Spirit fill you today as you begin your week.

Is He Worthy?