WEDNESDAY, MAY 20 · VERSE OF THE DAY
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
— John 1:1-5
Context
John opens his Gospel not with a birth story but with a cosmic poem that deliberately echoes Genesis 1. 'In the beginning' — same phrase. But where Genesis shows God speaking creation into existence, John reveals who was doing the speaking. The Greek word 'Logos' (Word) carried weight in both Jewish and Greek thought: divine reason, creative speech, God's self-expression. John's first readers — whether they knew Hebrew Scripture or Greek philosophy — would've heard him making a staggering claim: the ordering principle of the universe is a person, and he showed up in history. This isn't religious poetry. It's John saying the incarnation rewrites everything we thought we knew about how God relates to the world.
What it's actually saying
Verse 1 stacks three claims in rapid succession: the Word existed before time ('was'), the Word existed in active relationship with God ('was with'), and the Word was fully divine ('was God'). Not 'like God' or 'a god' — the grammar doesn't allow wiggle room. Verse 3 pushes further: not one thing exists that came into being apart from him. That includes you. Verse 4 links life and light — in Hebrew thought, 'life' wasn't just biological but relational, the animating presence of God. Verse 5 shifts to conflict: light shines in darkness, and darkness 'did not overcome it.' The Greek verb can mean 'overcome' or 'comprehend' — probably both. Darkness can't put out the light, and it can't understand it either. John's setting up his whole story: Jesus isn't a teacher who lived once. He's the reason anything exists, entering the hostile system he made.
How to apply it today
If everything that exists came through Jesus, then the work you do, the relationships you tend, the art you make, the problems you solve — all of it happens in a world structured by his creative logic, whether or not you acknowledge him. That doesn't mean 'everything happens for a reason' in some sentimental way. It means the grain of reality bends toward him. When you pursue truth, beauty, justice, or coherence in any domain, you're brushing up against the Logos whether you name him or not. One concrete shift: notice this week where you encounter order, beauty, or meaning that doesn't seem explainable by accident. Don't spiritualize it. Just notice it. You're noticing the Word's signature.
Sit with this
Where in your life do you experience something that feels 'lit up' — meaningful, ordered, beautiful — in a way that seems more than random? Write a couple sentences describing it. Then ask: if Jesus is the logic behind that, what does that change about how I see it?
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