In the story of the annunciation, Mary responded to the angel, “How can this be?” That simple question echoes through the centuries and reverberates in me today. Close to Christmas morning now, my heart kneels in wonder at the incomprehensible mystery of the eternal Word and the specific Word of Jesus.
The poetic beginning of John’s Gospel addresses it beautifully.* The Word was with God in the beginning. And the Word was God. Is eternally God. Everything created– everything that was, is, or will ever be– came into being through him. “Life-Light” is the title Eugene Petersen gives this passage of Scripture in The Message. That Word, that Life-Light, became flesh. And yet… how can this be? I grapple with it in awe.
Somehow, in the immeasurable creativity and generous love of the One Eternal Word, in the mystery of divine wisdom, a part of that Infinite Being became the incarnate Word and shone as a unique Life-Light in human form on Earth. Jesus, for a short time Immanuel, God-with-us, as a divine human being. Almost no one recognized him or received him. So of course Jesus wept as he entered Jerusalem on the way to his death, because the peace he offered was not accepted.
Jesus’ life began so simply, humbly, even as wise ones sought him and the majestic stars poured light on his manger bed. A great Life-Light experiment saturated with mystery and hope entered the world as a newborn baby, a Living Word swaddled in straw. And yet, it is also true and real that the Word has eternal cosmic proportions, so it is an unending experiment. That is what grips me this year, on this journey to Bethlehem: the cosmic and specific intermingled.
It’s been said that we are in some part of Holy Week, that last week of Jesus’ life ending at Calvary, every day of our lives. Probably true. But I hope we are also looking for the newborn in the manger in Bethlehem every day of our lives. The Word that was in the beginning and became flesh as a beginning among us, is creating new beginnings every moment. The landscape of human possibility and cosmic possibility weave together in gripping mystery. However unfathomable, it is real and true.
I need to hold on to the astounding generativity of the Word, in awe. I need awe to keep me alert to the ever-unfolding experiment of the Life-Light. It is the light of the ever-expanding, ever-creative Cosmic Christ. It is the light of Jesus of Nazareth. A spark of that light is in everything that has ever been and ever will be created. Again and again Mary’s question stirs my imagination, “How can it be?”
*John 1:1-14
Eugene Peterson translates John 1:14: We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father like Son, generous inside and out, true from start to finish.
–Ann Dean, Dayspring Church
- How can my eyes adapt to seeing sparks of Life-Light everywhere?
- How can my devotion stretch to absorb and express such generous love?
