The incarnation continues

I’ve been thinking about this post quite a bit this week:

The hope of the prophets, that longed-for “someday,” is born in flesh among us NOW. The Word of God whose love gave birth to the world is here among us! It’s no pie in the sky; it’s a child, revealed to the hosts of heaven and the shepherds shivering in the cold outside the village. The life that has come among us is none other than the light of the world. No darkness can overcome it; all the ends of the earth will see God’s salvation, deliverance from everything that separates us from one another and from God.

That’s why they say this is Good News. And here’s something that just might be the best part of it: when we proclaim that God’s Word was made flesh to live among us, we’re not just talking about an event in the first-century Roman province of Palestine. Every time we gather together to live into the way of Jesus, we are the Body of Christ, and the life-giving Word that powers the universe finds flesh among us.

This year, more than others, it’s hit me that the incarnation continues today in the church. In a way, Advent continues too, as we wait for the church to deliver on this promise. Still waiting, still hoping.