(from John 1: 1-5, 10-14)
Who can fathom what God is like? Being made in His image, we resemble Him in appearance, but in so many other ways, we’re not like Him at all. Within the Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Spirit are whole and complete within themselves, but decided to extend their joy further by creating others in a wider circle of fellowship. “Let us make man in our image…” In doing this, they also created a universe for a dwelling place. This was the beginning of time and space, as we now know it.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. And the Word was God! He was with God in the beginning! Amazing! Through Him, all things were made,
Without Him, nothing was made! In Him was that uncreated zoe-life from which all created life comes.
God is the source of all that is good. By His very nature, He is a self for others, as Norman Grubb puts it. All things go out from the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in their giving, and when what is sent out returns to them, it’s shared with each other in unending cycles of giving. All things belong to God and God keeps giving all things away again. In His creation the trees hold out their fruit for us to eat, from their branches. The earth offers up all it’s minerals. The waters quench our thirst and nourish the ground, etc. By contrast, Satan is a self for himself, giving only what he must, to gain more for his own gratification, not caring for anyone else but himself.
And the Word became flesh, made His dwelling place among us, so that we may see His Glory, the Glory that came down from the Father, full of Grace and Truth! So God reveals His wonderful self in His beloved Son, Jesus, that we may know Him. And He fills us with His Spirit so that we may be like Him with a new nature, a self for others. The darkness (self for itself) does not understand the light (self for others) that is shining in all that is made. Those of us who are still in the darkness do not understand, either.