“Nearly fifty years ago, the astronauts on board the Apollo 17 spacecraft took a photograph known as the ‘blue marble.’…This was the first clear image of the planet Earth floating in the inky black vastness of space. The ‘blue marble’ forever changed the way we conceive of our planet and our place in the universe. All these years later the photo is still haunting, humbling, and awe inspiring, the same qualities many of us ascribe to the beginning of the Gospel of John,” begins Rev. Amy Starr Redwine, pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Richmond, Virginia. She continues, John 1:1-14, “does not look to people or events to begin the story of the incarnation.” It is perhaps an usual choice of scripture for Christmas Day. However, Redwine reminds us that, “The incarnation is the promise that God is with us…in all things, from the mundane to the extraordinary. To experience this ‘with us’ God, we hold still, honor silence, sit with the darkness long enough to see the tiniest pin prick of light. We practice the presence of God.” Listen as she explains how we can do that on this Christmas Day.
Manuscript available: click HERE