In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.
—John 1:1–2, NIV
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about those two verses. Meditating, contemplating, analyzing, trying to understand. And the more I’ve tried to understand, the more I have come to understand that I just don’t understand. John’s Gospel is talking about something here that is beyond my grasp, beyond my comprehension. I don’t have any way to get my arms around this thing.
John has a wonderful way of doing that, of describing things that there are just no words for, telling us about things that just cannot be described in words. And in so doing reminding us that God is not limited to what I can formulate in a sentence, not limited to what I can diagram or what I can explain with math or science. God is not limited to what I can imagine, and what God can do in my life isn’t limited to what I can come up with.
In these first two verses John is talking about something that I simply don’t have any frame of reference for; that in some way, some incomprehensible way, Jesus was there at the creation of the universe; the same Jesus who took human form and walked upon this world a couple of thousand years ago and whose birth we celebrate today; the same Jesus who we know is in our lives today. That mysterious Gospel of John.
From The Beginning
words and music © Garrison Doles
from his CD House of Prayer
At the sunrise of creation when the dark gave way to the light
It was Jesus brought creation out of the deepest well of the night
And he walked on this earth
Yes he walked upon this earth
He was right there all along
From the beginning
Oh the hours that I’ve puzzled this mysterious Gospel of John
Just can’t seem to get my mind around it how could there ever be such a one
But he walked on this earth
He came and walked upon this earth
He was right there all along
From the beginning
And though the world was made through him
You could see that they never really knew him
And when he showed up to be with his own
They disowned him and turned him away
But for all who believed him
And every last one who received him
He gathered around him and brought them to be in the family of God
Don’t you remember you’re in the family of God
And the Word was with God and the Word was God
And the Word was made flesh and the Word was God
And he walked on this earth
Yes he walks upon this earth
He was right there all along
Oh yes right here all along
You know he’s been right here all along
From the beginning
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