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Happy New Year 2020...

Thursday, Jan 2, 2020. Happy and blessed New Year 2020! May your life be full of peace and purpose, full of love, truth and faithfulness! May you be a light to the people around you, to everyone you know.

We all are called to be full of faith. In the biblical books we are invited to trust the Lord, the creator, the beginning and the end. We are invited to discover the Lord, his presence, his character. Let us discuss this faith and look a little deeper into it! What does it mean?

The Beginning …

The gospel of John starts with a description of God in father, son and holy spirit. It speaks about “the word”, which was God and was with God. It is said that the word became flesh and lived among us. John is talking about Christ Jesus …

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. (Johannes 1, 1-4)

When we talk about our life, about what we hope and desire, about our fears and challenges, it is good to base our discussion on something sound and sustainable. It is necessary to base our life on something which constitutes a firm ground.

God is the eternal God. He has not been created. He is. Time did not contrain him. He is above time. He is also in time, acting in our world, in our life. Since all is created by him, he was “in the beginning”. But God is three in one. There is “the word”. This word was God. And it was “with God”. John describes a relationship of unity and community which we can barely understand or imagine. He talks about what the bible also calls “God, the father, and God, the son”. God in himself is relationship. God in himself is communication. God in himself is love, dedication, community.

The Son …

The gospel of John does not stay with God at the beginning. It tells a further and important story. It speaks about the word, which became flesh:

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. (John 1, 14)

God became flesh, and lived among us. God wants to be with us, with you and with me. This was true when Jesus lived, 2000 years ago. It is also true today, though today he does not live with us by the son being a human, but by the Holy Spirit, who comes to all who believe in the Son.

John talks about the “glory of God”. He talks about specific character features of the Son. Grace and truth are named here. Grace is action out of free choice, love and friendliness. It is action which is not paid for and whose purpose is the well-being of the one who receives grace. Truth means that word and reality are in resonance. It means that the intention and purpose of the speech is pure and transparent and without any fraud.

It is good to start the year 2020 with looking to God as the beginning, as the one who is the community of the father, the son and the holy spirit. Here, when we turn to God, we find great things, we find our origin and our purpose. Let us work out this origin and purpose in the new year! (Roland Potthast)

This is part of the trilogy project “Faith of a Scientist”.