On that night, over 2000 years ago…

The ordinary became miraculous. Night had fallen and the darkness was deep. The day’s light was fully gone, leaving a blanket of silence across the land. Bethlehem was preparing to sleep yet another time, finally having a reprieve from the day’s hustle of foreign soldiers and their brutality to exact yet another tax from its people. Even the effort to party away the general feeling of continued oppression was hollow, only emphasizing even more the lie that their life was nothing more than a payment for power’s pleasure. Sleep, it seemed, to be the only escape, but only temporary. The morning light would bring more of the same of what seemed an unending cycle.

Even more life draining was the unseen phantom of shifting form that walked among all of mankind since Earth’s beginning. Possessing both a loveless esteem and a mouth full of lies, this created being that once stood and worshipped the Eternal Relationship of the Eternals – the Father, Jesus and the Spirit – now focused his treachery on their heart’s desire and treasure of all the Cosmos – us as humankind. Depraved, fallen and transformed into the expressed image of ultimate brokenness, this creature who once reflected beauty, song and dance of the Goodness and Love of the Eternals, now existed to lie and project myths about you and I’s purpose, goodness, and inclusion in the circle of Eternal Love. And while the myths are but hollow walls blocking the Light of humanity, this same Light continues to shine brightly as a sun of all suns through space and time. What is the truth of this light that never diminishes nor has an ending? You and I were fashioned as part of the Eternals, in their likeness and form, existing in an unbroken relationship because of their love for each other AND us.

So what does the Eternals do when those they love are so blinded by the lies and bound in the prisons of their own making in choosing to believe they are separated rather than already in union with them? They become the creature, to experience our journey and dwell in the midst of our darkness to destroy every wall of myth that restricts the Light of Eternal relationship that shines from within in every human as a present reality. Mystifyingly beautiful and wondrous as an expression of their love for all of us.

And so it happens. Against the hushed awe of heaven’s creatures, the Eternals do just that – they become the very creature they had created. Not a “superman” creature who remains aloof, but one born and bound within the finite of our world’s experience. They enter our world as we do – as a baby, subject to the process of growth of our bodies, minds, souls, experiences and choices. Into us, they join themselves – their Agape – the most powerful force that unites. Doing so now enables us to experience the union of creature with Creator. The Eternals fully understood that the loss of relationship at the beginning was blindness to the reality of ever-present union. Their love for humanity compelled their desire to become like the creature, to experience their deepest blindness and darkness. They did this to declare with finality – “Our union with you is the light within you that never diminishes. Your freedom to embrace it or the myth that we are separated will always be yours to make because true love always gives a choice. But whatever you choose in any one moment doesn’t change our committed promise to remain present. Know with certainty our coming as Emmanuel (God, plural, with Us) was our choice to become like you to win your heart. You are always with us and we will keep challenging your darkness of blindness to experience our established union in love’s full embrace.”

The appointed night arrived, framed by history and the doorway into the future. The world in that moment laid silent – exhausted, discouraged, and hopeless – accepting what was as what is and what will be. And then, in the quiet emptiness of that night, faint but crescendo-ing, a baby’s birthing cry echoed across the landscape proclaiming – the Eternals have come to make their Presence known within the human soul as an intimately, experienced reality. Our night of being lied to has transformed into Light – we have never been, nor ever will be, alone. The Eternals insure it with their very existence.

Thank you Jesus for pursuing us all the way to earth and in our deepest recesses of myth and lie. Thank you Father and Spirit for your unending Presence and Love for each other and Jesus, also choosing to have each of us as part of your Eternal journey together. May Mystery, Beauty and Wonder of Your relationship together captivate our hearts with fuller revelation with every passing moment. May we want you like you want us.

Mark Francis

December 2021