What new thing will God do?

     "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God."  This is the first verse of John's gospel, the reading we heard on Christmas day as well as the reading for this coming Sunday.  The Christmas carols have stopped playing on the radio.  The Christmas decorations in stores have been picked over at the after-Christmas sales and are starting to be replaced with Valentine's Day merchandise (yes, I saw cards and candy).  Homes are cleaning and tidying after presents were opened and families went home. It is difficult for us (at least for me) to remember that we are still in the Christmas season.  Today is the 5th day, the day of five golden rings, or the day that reminds us of the first five books of the bible called the "Pentateuch", or the "law". 
    In addition to the stores and the radio stations stopping with the Christmas celebrations the second we pass December 25, we also have our New Year's celebration smack dab in the middle of our Christmas season.  I often think back over the previous year with wonder and amazement.  Where did the time go?  How do you measure a year?  (The Rent song, "Seasons of Love" plays over in my head, sometimes annoyingly over and over...) I look forward to the next year with anticipation of what is in store.  And into this time of transition from one year to another we have the words from John's prologue.
    John's Christmas story is a short little verse, found in John 1.14 - "and the Word became flesh and lived among us..." God has entered our human story, incarnate in bone and flesh, cell and sinew.  God did something brand new - coming into the world in a way the world had never experienced God before.  God had most certainly been doing new things: creating the universe through the Word.  Creating light to shine in the darkness.  Calling John the Baptist to tell about Christ's coming so that the world might be ready.  Revealing all of God's grace and truth in a human being.  This is a text full of new things!
     From the very beginning God has been doing new things.  And God continues to do new things!  The Word did become incarnate in Jesus Christ, however the Word continues to become incarnate through God's children.  The Word becomes incarnate in you when you show love to another human being.  The Word becomes incarnate when we are God's presence in the community, when we nurture children in faith, when we provide a place to belong, when we show compassion to those in need.  The Word becomes incarnate when we point to God, as John pointed to Jesus.  The Word becomes incarnate when we show grace or mercy to others.  Looking back over the past year it is exciting to see how God became incarnate through you and through me.  It also makes me anticipate the great mystery of the next year:
What new thing will God do?