The Word Who Was Always There

John 1:1-18

Before there was a single star,
before there was a sky to hang it in,
before the first morning ever opened its eyes,
there was the Word.

The Word was with God.
The Word was God.
And oh, how the Word loved to speak.

He said "Light," and light came running.
He said "Sea," and the waters came rolling.
He said "Birds," and the air filled up with wings.
Everything that is, every mountain, every minnow, every you,
came alive because the Word said so.

He made it all.
And not one thing got made without him.

But an ache ran through the world.

People could see the mountains.
People could see the minnows and the morning and the wide blue sea.
But the One who made them?
Him they could not see.

So they wondered.
They looked up at night and whispered, Are you there?
They reached into the dark and felt only the dark.
More than anything, they wanted to see his face.
To know if his eyes were kind.

Have you ever wanted that too,
to see God with your very own eyes?

God knew.
God saw every reaching hand.
And his heart went tender toward them, the way your heart goes soft
when someone you love is lonely in another room.

So God did the most astonishing thing.

The Word,
the One who flung the stars,
the One no eye had ever seen,
became a baby
with skin and breath and ten small fingers.
He came down the long, long way
and moved in right next door.

He lived among us.
You could walk up to him.
You could climb into his lap.
You could look right into his eyes.
And when you did, you found out
that his eyes were kind.

Light had come into the dark,
and the dark could not put it out.

The God you ached to see
is not far off anymore.
He has a face now.

His name is Jesus.

Full of grace and full of truth,
full of more love than your two arms could ever hold.
There is enough of that love for you,
as if you were the only one,
and just as much for every child he is bringing home.

No one had ever seen God.
And then we did.

The ache was never silly.
The ache was a door,
and the door has swung wide open.
Love walked through it.
And now that you have found his face,
you get to know him more, and more, and more,
forever.