And the Word Became Flesh

I sit back and close my eyes, the soft gray cover of my Bible resting in my open hands. It’s words are sweet, and somehow new even though I’ve read them a thousand times. I look over at the Tok Pisin Bible on my coffee table and my mind drifts to the times I’ve had recently with a good friend of mine. When she was young she was chosen as the daughter that would stay at home to care for her parents while the rest of the children went to school. Despite this discouragement, over the years she took any chance she could get to learn. She would sit with friends and look over their shoulders eagerly as they read aloud from books and newspapers. She begged someone to teach her to read and he had given her a few reading lessons. She told me once that any chance she got to try and read she took it and would studiously wrestle with each written page until she could read it. One day I was preparing a meal for the two of us and I saw her sitting on my couch gently caressing the pages of my little Tok Pisin Bible. She slowly followed each word with her finger and whispered the words as she struggled to pronounce each one.

I stopped what I was doing and came to sit next to her. I asked her if she’d like to read together. She smiled shyly and nodded. So we started to read God’s sweet words together. We read about Jesus coming to this earth as the living Word, the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us. She looked up at me and asked more about Jesus coming and walking with humans on earth. An hour later we looked up to see our time together had slipped away, but what a sweet hour we had talking about God’s Word, about Jesus and about the truth that is both light and life to us personally.

My friend told me that some of the things we’d spoken of she had never heard before. She has spent her whole life attending church but she’s never been able to read God’s Word for herself. After we read the Bible together she said that Jesus was more real to her, that he was coming alive to her. Reflecting on that time with her and the times I’ve had since reading God’s Word together, its become evident to me that the power of God’s Word in lives is undeniable. Since we’ve began to read, I can see a distinct change in my friend’s life. She comes every week with new questions. She tells me of things God is speaking to her about and how He’s using the words to change the way she thinks and acts. My friend has spent years hearing sermons and little Bible stories, but she’s never been able to read the Bible for herself. She’s never had someone sit and explain its truth to her. Her lack of access to scripture because of her inability to read well was humbling and challenging for me. I am Christ’s representation, the living letter of the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us. Even the simple act of sitting with someone and reading a few verses at a time and taking the time to explain them can open a whole new world for someone, can help them understand and draw closer to God. I can daily help introduce them to Jesus the Word that became flesh and walked with us so that we could know God.