FAMILY IT! — Wednesday Family Devotional — “Street Hero”

I am a book nerd.  I LOVE to read!  I spent most of my childhood with my nose in a book.  My parents still complain that they took me across the country and back on vacation and the only scenery I saw was the story playing out in my mind.  I admit I don’t spend as much time reading as I used to, but part of that is just being responsible.  Once I get into a good book, I’m likely to ignore my family, skip meals, and even stay up all night until I’ve finished.  Once that world start building in my brain, once the characters become actual people in my head, I find myself inexplicably drawn to them.  I just want to live in that world with my new friends.  Do you feel that way too, or is it just me?

Maybe your favorite part of reading is getting to see your favorite characters come to life on the big screen.  I admit, I have stood in long lines to see how someone else has portrayed my best books.  There have been some wonderful versions!  I sit in the theater and think that if I had the book in front of me and was reading off the page, it would look just like what I was seeing in the movie.  And yet, as good as the films are, I still know that I’m not really seeing these amazing characters.  It’s still Elijah Wood or Johnny Depp, not Frodo or Willy Wonka.  How great would it be if we could meet real-life versions of these written down people?  What would it be like if your favorite friends from your favorite books introduced themselves as your new neighbors next door?  Ahhhh!  My brain is exploding with excitement just at the possibility!

This is the kind of thing I think of when I start reading the Gospel of John.  It’s starts off very differently from the other gospels, which are much more like regular stories.  Take a minute and read through John 1:1-18 together.  

Like I said, it’s different.  Different…and amazing!  Because what we see here is the impossible becoming possible.  There’s all of this talk about “the Word”—with a capital W.  It’s used as a proper noun, which means it’s a name.  But the name of what?  Is John talking about the Bible?  Is that “the Word” he means?  Answer: kind of. John is partly talking about the scriptures, about the record of God’s relationship with his people.  But he’s also taking that a step further.

Take a look at verse 14:  “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”  The Word became flesh.  Imagine you’re sitting there, in you living room, reading from the Bible.  You’re reading about who God is and what he wants for his people, for his children.  Suddenly, as you read, the words on the page begin to disappear.  Think ink jumps from the paper, and begins swirling in front of you.  A figure starts to form from the drops.  With each word you read, he becomes more visible.  Finally, you realize you are staring into the glorious face of “the only Son from the Father”; you’re looking at Jesus.

That’s who “the Word” is.  He is the Word of God made into a fleshy human being.  If you could create a character who was the perfect representation of everything God is, that character would be Jesus.  Cool, right?  But it gets even better, because the Word didn’t just become flesh, it also “dwelt among us.”  The Message says he “moved into the neighborhood.”  So that means Jesus is the real-life version of God who also actually lives right in your community.  Way better than Willy Wonka living next door!!  

Jesus isn’t just a character.  He’s a real, live person we can get to know.  And like any other person, the best way to get to know Jesus is to spend time with Him.  We love to spend time with our favorite characters from books and movies, right?  Well, if we’re going to be Christians—followers of Jesus Christ—we need to prioritize spending time with Him, too.  That means reading the Word (Jesus written down) and talking with Him in prayer.  We want to experience His presence daily!

Most of the time we think of praying and reading the Bible as something we do on our own.  After all, we each have our own relationship with Jesus.  But as Christian families, we also need to get to know Jesus as a family unit.  Does your family spend time with Jesus together?  Do you have family devotions or regular prayer time?  Now is a great time to start that discipline!  If you already have Bible time together, is there anything else your family can be doing to practice the daily presence of Jesus? 

As you close your time together in prayer, ask the Holy Spirit for guidance in how your family can get to know Jesus together.  Thank God for sending his Son into your neighborhood.