Advent, Day 9: The Word.

Today's reading: John 1:1-18

in the beginning of life
was the Word:
hand in hand with eternal God
at play with creation, existence, and
language itself
fashioning the world
as it rolled off holy tongues
in nouns and verbs
(wave, roll
bird, fly
lion, roar
human, love)

in the beginning of the story
was the Word:
carved onto tablets,
traveling in tent and tabernacle,
spoken aloud around campfires
and in congregations
from generation to generation
(and later whispered in homes
and hidden rooms,
enscribed into epistles and
composed into hymns--
for who could help but
sing that wondrous story?)

in the beginning, at the cross,
was the Word:
the last word,
which death no longer possessed

in the beginning of us
was the Word:
who knew and named us
before we ever took a breath
in this world he created--
who came in flesh and bone
to be with us
(as he was with God)
to be
us
(as he was
God)
whose glory glows in darkness
(a candle, a star, the rising sun)

the Word, grace;
the Word, truth:
eternal flame
against chaos
against wilderness
against death

come, O Word of God,
O Word, God,
shine.