When God Walked Into the Room

During the first wave of COVID-19, Maria Gutierrez sat in a hospital parking lot in Houston, pressing her phone against her ear while a nurse held an iPad near her father's bed. She could see his face through the screen. She could whisper that she loved him. But she could not hold his hand. She could not let him feel the warmth of his daughter sitting beside him.

Millions of families endured this same anguish — real love reduced to pixels and glass, voices flattened into tinny speakers. Every word spoken through that screen was true. But everyone knew it was not enough.

When restrictions finally lifted, people did not start with conversation. They embraced. They wept into each other's shoulders, because physical presence says something that words transmitted from a distance never can.

This is the staggering reality of John 1:14. For centuries, God communicated with His people — through prophets, through pillars of fire, through commandments carved in stone. Every revelation was genuine. Every message was from Him. But there remained an aching distance between the Creator and His creation.

Then, in Bethlehem, the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. The Almighty did not send another message. He came Himself. He took on skin and hunger and weariness and tears. He chose to be close enough to touch, because some truths can only be spoken in person.