Worldwide Christmas December 30, 2025 Devotional

JOHN 1:1-5 | 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 came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being ⁴ in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.

Before there was history, there was community. John daringly speaks of a time before time itself, when the Word was with God and was God. This belief was later described as the Trinity—a picture of a God who is one in substance, but has three persons. There are many analogies for this idea, such as a root, branch, and fruit, or a source, a river, and water. These images try to capture identity and difference as simultaneous realities. The most famous analogy comes from St. Augustine's comparison between the Trinity and the human soul. We have, in a single consciousness, memory, intelligence, and willpower. We remember, we think, and we decide. Each faculty and action is distinct, like the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but all are actions of the one conscious actor (the Trinity x, 11,7).

The biblical God is free to be beyond us as our Sovereign creator, beside us in our history in Christ, and with us as the comforting Spirit.

John believed Jesus Christ was divine from eternity. Do you?

Holy Trinity,

Thank You for creating, redeeming, and renewing us and for deciding to be not only above us, but also beside us and within us.

Amen.