In her fuzzy, footy pajamas with pink-nosed bears on the feet, my little girl scaled the side of my bed. Her diaper crinkled as she found a foothold on the bed frame. With one fist clutching the bedspread and one arm in a headlock around her stuffed puppy, Shelley, Amelia reached the summit for our nighttime Bible stories.
At eighteen months old, Amelia used a board book Bible with woodland creatures and flaps that hid quotes from the day’s three or four sentence story. The book presented the Bible in order from Genesis to Revelation, and we had used it for bedtime routines since she was nine months old. That night we were back to the first page of the Bible.
I do not remember exactly why she got so excited about the page. I just remember my panic when she asked me, “How?! How did God do it, mommy? How did God create the world?”
My sweet little girl expected an answer, and I thought: Why don’t I know what to say? To stall while I thought about how to explain the “how” of creation to a not quite two-year-old, I pulled out my Bible and read the first few sentences aloud to her. In a moment of why did I not remember this before, I replied.
“Amelia, he ‘said’--God spoke it! That’s how he created. God used his words.”
Satisfied with the reply and bedtime routine complete, Amelia explained to Shelley that God used his words and slid down from my bed. I chuckled that the theme of the day came around again in the Bible.
God uses words! At this time of year, Christians often read John 1:14: “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.”
The triune God spoke the world into existence, gave us the words in holy scripture, gave us Jesus as the Word made flesh, and continues to give us words by his Holy Spirit even when we do not know what to say or pray.
God uses words for his glory, showing his grace and truth to his loved creation.
As you celebrate this Christmas may you rejoice in God’s glorious Word and hear the Christmas story anew, with the mind of a child. Merry Christmas from the Waynesburg University Writing Center!
