“And the word was made flesh…”

Today is Christmas. Around the world, worshipers are gathering to hear a story — about the birth of Jesus. There are two Gospel accounts: Luke provides the narrative about Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem, giving birth to the child in a manger “because there was no room for them in the inn,” the angels’ appearance to shepherds in the field, and their visit to see the “babe lying in a manger”; and Matthew tells of Herod, the king of Judea, who dispatched “wise men” to find the young child, how the men followed a star to Bethlehem, and finding Mary with the child, offered up gifts of “gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.” People have conflated the two tales into one, creating the familiar story we now know.

There is another version of the story in the Gospel of John. This one takes a metaphorical approach, referring to Jesus as the “Word” (from the Greek word logos). Here from chapter 1, verse 14:

“And the Word was made flesh…”

If at this point, you’re expecting a sermon from me — and certainly you could be expected to considering the fact I did get an M.Div. degree from Yale Divinity School — you would be right. But my ‘sermon’ has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with creativity. For the very idea of the “Word” being made “flesh” is a beautiful metaphor for a writer’s creative process: How our words on a printed page can take on life in the minds of our readers. Indeed, I think it’s fair to say that our goal as a writer is nothing less than the incarnation of our ideas into that mystical, yet oh-so-real form of story.

One of the big tricks, of course, is how to do that, transform our words — printed symbols — into ‘flesh’ — a vivid story in the mind’s eye of our readers. We’ve talked a lot about that subject on this blog for the last 20 months. And doubtless, we shall talk about it more. Indeed, I will have more to say in this regard on New Year’s Eve, but for now let me just offer this holiday wish to you as writers:

May your words become ‘flesh.’

Godspeed to all of you!

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