By Judy Villanueva
In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him… In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.” (John 1:1-4)
“We have it in us to be Christ to one another… to work miracles of love and healing…to bless with him and forgive with him and heal with him…to grieve…and to rejoice…. And, who knows but that in the end, by God’s mercy, the two stories will converge for good…His story will come true in us at last. And in the meantime, this side of Paradise, it is our business…to bear witness to, and live out of, and live toward, and live by, the true word of his holy story as it seeks to stammer itself forth through the holy stories of us all.” (Frederick Buechner)
I was lucky enough to witness the birth of my first grandchild. It is difficult to describe the joy that swept through the room when that precious baby came into the light and drew her first breath. The miracle of birth proclaimed itself and the beauty of new life reached out with gifts of hope for all. She gasped and inhaled for the first time. I gasped and exhaled dumbstruck at the sight of her little hands and feet, her mouth wide open in protest and her eyes straining to see the new world around her. She is a little word breathed by God with a story to tell, of Life and Light.
Have you ever considered that you are a word breathed by God? Who did God breathe you to be? What story did God breathe you to tell? These are the questions that have kept me company as I have kept company with John 1:1-4 this week. The God, who moved over the surface of the waters and spoke “Let there be light,” also spoke me into existence. And you, too! “Let there be a you,” and there was! God’s words create life and light.
He speaks and it is, and IT IS with a purpose and a story to tell.
How does it make you feel to consider that you are a word breathed by God with a purpose and a story to tell?
It makes me a little giddy! It might also make me anxious if I slip into thinking that I must figure out the point and purpose of the word that is me! Do you know what I mean? “We have it in us to be Christ.” That is the truth that keeps setting us free and lighting our way.
Christ in us IS our hope and power to bless and forgive, heal and grieve and rejoice and love!
He IS the story that comes true in us at last, one day at a time, as we seek to know Him and as we “bear witness to, and live out of, and live toward, and live by, the true word of his holy story as it seeks to stammer itself forth through the holy stories of us all.”
“Prompt me, Lord, to pray as I inhale and exhale throughout the day. To take time to breathe in Your refreshing presence that fills me up and to breathe out with surrender and faith and gratitude. Amen.”
What About You?
Have you ever considered that you are a word breathed by God with a story to tell?
Who did God breathe you to be? (He knows even if we do not)
What story is your life telling?
Have you breathed in the Life and Light that Christ offers?
Worship
WOW….this message really made me think….other than my kids, and maybe a little
bit my grandkids, I’ve never really thought too much about what kind of a special
message I was sending them. Now you’ve made me wonder what I have instilled in my grandkids. I do know that time goes by very fast, and that the most important emotion I could show my grandkids was how much their grandfather and I love them…..and now the great-grand ones have been born…and our dear GOD has showed us how much HE loves us by granting us more love as we get older, He shows that the gift of love is never ending.
OK – Full disclosure – I’m letting you know now that I’m stealing that line.. “You are a word breathed by God” … Wow!
We’ll be starting 40 days of Purpose at the beginning of the year and I have to do an announcement for it at the beginning of December… I’m opening it up with that line. That is so powerful… to think of the full impact of that statement… not only it’s purpose but it’s responsibility that only YOU can fulfill. Wow again. Love it!!