The Word Became Flesh

 Something changes on Christmas night.

I mean, yeah obviously Mary becomes a mother and Jospeh a presumably still-confused stepfather and the boy who is to be King of the World is in a manger and angels and shepherds and Magi and all that stuff.

But something changes for God.

It's like this - in the beginning God created the heaven and earth. And it was all good. It was all good.We can debate what we mean by "good" in a universe where life can only exist because stars have died, on a planet where it's the geological movements that create volcanoes and earthquakes that also recycle the essential elements of life. But we don't have all night. I think it's somewhere in that the universe is beautiful and also terrifying. And in that respect, I suspect, it resembles its creator just as the creator has put the divine image into all of us. And because we have the divine image, we work to understand this amazing world that God created. And because it's good, our science and our art all work to build our understanding.

And God has created this universe like an artist. God can stand back from the creation and admire it.

Until Christmas Night.

Because now, God the Son, the Word - the one through whom everything was created - is seeing it all from the inside. Not just as a creator - as a creature.

The blobby brown shapes of Mary and Joseph as they care for him.

The smell of warm milk. The odd-for-a-newborn whiff of animal droppings and fresh hay.

Reaching out and touching, as best as the swaddling bands would allow him - touching the hay. Grabbing the finger of the shepherd who has dropped in to wonder.

The sounds of the womb, replaced with the sounds of breathing, the wind outside, maybe some angels still allowed in the area around where the little family rested.

So God found what it's like to be a human being. To be in it with the rest of us. To be one of us.

Something has changed for God. He becomes made of the stuff that he himself made.

He will discover what it's like to be part of a human family. To have brothers and sisters. Friends, and enemies. The taste of wine and the smell of blood. The joy of weddings and the sadness of funerals. What it is to be loved and what it is like to be hated. What it is like truly to live - and what it is like to die.

Something has changed for God. God has drawn close to this world. Become part of it. Our struggles are also Jesus's. 

And this world has changed. We have been touched with the divine. And we are called to follow him where he has gone. And because of Christmas night, we can follow him.

Have a very blessed Christmas.