January 5, 2020
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.
John 1:1-18
Despite the problematic light-dark imagery and the problematic father-son gendered God language in this passage, it’s one of my favorites in all of scripture. I think it’s because it gets at the co-creative relationship that the birth of Jesus signifies. Word becomes flesh. Word becomes life. Word becomes grace and truth.
Right now, my daughter is having a language explosion. “Dog” is her favorite word, closely followed by “More,” equally likely to appear when requesting an eighth helping of Cheerios as it is when she wants to hear The Wheels on the Bus for the zillionth time. Hearing her say “Thank You” to her grandma when she cleans applesauce off her face is such a joy. The ability to use words to communicate successfully has signified an enormous change in our relationship. She can try to tell us, her parents, what she wants and what she’s thinking. I’ve heard from speech-language pathologist friends that it’s so important for nonverbal kids to have a mode of communication, whether it’s signs or a tablet or another assistive device, and in this phase of Phoebe’s life I can really understand why that’s true. Words offer us a modicum of control over our world. They allow us to connect with one another and express ourselves.
In thinking about Jesus as the Word, I think about his role as a kind of assistive device, helping us communicate more effectively with God. I understand the incarnation, Jesus’ life, as God putting on a body to experience all the joy and pain of human life. With that in mind, I feel much freer expressing my true inner life in prayer, knowing that God gets it.
Of course, any communication can be frustrating. My daughter often signs and says “More” over and over again and I have no idea what she wants more of. I beg God for answers and feel like I’m coming up empty. But these co-creative relationships, ours with God and ours with our children, feel like promises. Promises to keep trying, to come back together, to never give up in our quest to be understood. The reminder of how good it feels to be understood helps me have some patience with my kiddo as she tries so hard to tell me what she means.
I realize communication with your child is a rollercoaster. It might get easier for a while, as she acquires more language and we work on that huge emotional intelligence skill of naming feelings. But I know it will get harder as she goes through her own process of differentiation, asserting herself as an independent person, testing limits and holding her parents at arms’ length. I hope to lay the groundwork in these early years to reassure her that even though I may not always understand her, I’m in it with her.
The Parents' Lectionary 