John 1:1–2, 14 In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the
beginning… The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen
his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of
grace and truth.
In the
Christian story God descends to reascend. He comes down; down from the heights
of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity; down further still,
if embryologists are right, to recapitulate in the womb ancient and pre-human
phases of life; down to the very roots and seabed of the Nature He has created.
But He goes down to come up again and bring the whole ruined world up with Him.
One has the picture of a strong man stooping lower and lower to get himself
underneath some great complicated burden. He must stoop in order to lift, he
must almost disappear under the load before he incredibly straightens his back
and marches off with the whole mass swaying on his shoulders. Or one may think
of a diver, first reducing himself to nakedness, then glancing in mid-air, then
gone with a splash, vanished, rushing down through green and warm water into
black and cold water, down through increasing pressure into the death-like
region of ooze and slime and old decay; then up again, back to color and light,
his lungs almost bursting, till suddenly he breaks surface again, holding in
his hand the dripping, precious thing that he went down to recover. He and it
are both colored now that they have come up into the light: down below, where
it lay colorless in the dark, he lost his color too.
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