NATIVITY By Mike Herron

Merma, Aramaic for The Word because they thought the names of God were too holy to even pronounce . 7 In the Targums Genesis 1:1 reads, ' In the beginning, The Merma (The Word) created the heavens and the earth.' Both Jew and Gentile were prepared by Scripture and Philosophy to understand Christ as The Word, The Logos. 1 The Word was with God, ... ‘Was with God’… describes the most intense closeness possible. Jn 1:11 portrays the intimacy as ' ... the unique One, who is himself God, is near the Fathers heart.' Other uses of this phrase give the meaning of being face to face, at home in His presence. 'The Word is not an attribute of God...but a person...turned in loving, inseparable communion toward God and God equally toward him.' 8 John knew The Word through the avenue of his three senses; hearing, seeing and touching Him. He invites us into this relationship with God and His family. ‘ We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word (Logos) of life.’ 1 Jn 1:1 1 ...and the Word was God. The Logos has been in an unchanging, timeless existence forever, distinct yet indivisible with The Father and the Holy Spirit. ‘God was what the Word was.’ 9 The Good News is this Word became human and spoke the wholeness of salvation to everything that is destroyed by sin. 2 He existed in the beginning with God.’ John restates the previous thoughts into one sentence, a literary technique that he employs throughout his writings. The