“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” ‭‭John‬ ‭1:14‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

“The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish. John‬ ‭1:14‬ ‭MSG‬‬

“So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.” ‭‭John‬ ‭1:14‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The Gospel According to John always tells the story in a different way. Matthew, Mark and Luke are concerned with the facts, the when and the what and the how. But John wants to get to the why.

If Matthew, Mark and Luke are biographies, John is a Theo-graphy. He doesn’t just tell the life story of Jesus, he tells the God story of Jesus.

When he tells the story of Jesus birth he doesn’t start in Nazareth or Bethlehem. He starts at the beginning. In fact, before the beginning. He says at the beginning Jesus, the Word of God, already existed. And everything that came to be, came to be through Jesus.

When we talk about Jesus being our hope, we aren’t just talking about the baby born in Bethlehem or the man who walked in Galilee. We aren’t just talking about the rabbi or the healer, or even about the sacrificial Lamb of God. We are taking about the eternal reality of Jesus.

Jesus is bigger than time, bigger than the world, bigger than the problem of our sin. That is what makes him our hope. The fact that he is above and beyond. Abiding and ageless. Unlimited by anything, anytime or anyone.

And yet.

And yet, he chose to put on flesh and move into the neighborhood. To become one of us. To accept the limits of human existence.

For us.

And so, hope – our hope – was born in Bethlehem.