Consider this: If we compressed creation history down to one year, with the Big Bang occurring on January 1, Homo sapiens would not arrive until 11:59 PM on December 31st. We are but a blip in the history of this universe. To my mind, it is crazy to think God was not present in—incarnated in—our world until the last tiny blip of chronological time when a Palestinean man named Jesus was born. Indeed, the Prologue of John says God’s active presence among us, which is what’s meant by the theological term “the Word”—God’s active presence among us—made all things from the very beginning: ‘The Word’ “was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.” As proposed by Franciscan teacher Richard Rohr, another way of thinking about what’s here called ‘the Word’ is to say ‘the Blueprint’ or the Universal Christ presence. The Universal Christ was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through the Christ, and without the Christ not one thing came into being. This very present God was always inherent in creation and among us. Jesus—with his radical “yes” to incarnation—helps us to see it. But Jesus’s life 2000 years ago was not the first instance of God’s active, enlightening/enlivening presence with us…. {Read remainder of column on Patheos HERE.}
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Yes, isn’t it wonder-full!
This speaks to my heart and memory and makes me hopeful and happy. I love our parallels.