BIBLE W1 D4 And The Word Became Flesh (John 1:1-18)

I first encountered the beauty of this passage during my confirmation "boot camp", a week-long, 8 hour a day training session with my pastor while growing up in the summer of 1978. My pastor spoke eloquently about the importance and significance of this "prologue" to John's gospel. I didn't appreciate everything he said at that time, but I remembered the passage and started noticing it when it was read each Christmas.

Each time I return to this passage, I notice again the beauty of the passage and the immensity of the thoughts expressed in it. THE WORD was first... THE WORD became flesh... think about it... GOD DWELT among us. The thought is huge, but the way it's expressed in John's prologue adds intensity from the use of language.

That summer was my first exposure to what has become a lifelong love for the Bible's expressive beauty - loving the language of our scriptures. I mentioned the "In the beginning..." passage yesterday, and now we add John's Prologue. But there are countless more examples... the simple beauty of Psalm 23 or The Beatitudes in Matthew 5... the poetry of the Psalms... the wisdom of Proverbs, some of which stands as useful now as thousands of years ago... the sheer terror of passages from John's Revelation. The Bible contains all kinds of treasures.

So look at the bible as something more than a list of rules. Explore it like Sarah does on p.19 of our book. Start to see it for the treasure it is.