For over a thousand years, Christians have sung the O Antiphons in the days leading up to Christmas. Together they comprise a hymn that centers our attention on the glories of Advent and the Incarnation.

From the 17th to the 23rd, we will be sharing the day’s verse along with a short meditation by members of the Colson Center staff.

O Wisdom of our God Most High,

guiding creation with power and love:

come to teach us the path of knowledge!

Into the chaos and confusion at the dawn of the cosmos, God came. Into the simple stuff of matter and energy, He spoke His Word, bringing light from darkness, Earth from heaven, land from sea, living beings from insensate matter.

Onto the height of His creation, God wrote. Onto Adam and Eve, He imprinted His Image, breathing an eternal soul into human flesh, making us co-rulers of the created order, relational beings for His honor and His great joy.

Yet, we chose another way, another wisdom. Seeking a knowledge and power of our own, we turned aside from the path of our Creator, thereby undoing the gracious ordering of God’s good creation. Left to ourselves, we would have fallen into utter darkness.

Yet, God chose another way. For the sake of His Name, He spoke again into our lives, promising that Someone would come, Someone who would suffer for our sake and emerge victorious for His, Someone who would lead us in His wisdom and His power back to the true path.

Into the chaos and confusion of our world, God came. In the weakness of a baby, God’s wisdom, power, and knowledge broke into our darkness. His love bringing light and life to an Earth separated from Him.

Taking on human flesh and allowing that flesh to be broken, He restored His cosmos. By His wisdom and love, by His knowledge and power, the same God who made the world at the beginning is now making all things new.

[Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series. For the second, click here.]

Timothy D. Padgett, PhD, is the Managing  Editor of BreakPoint and the author of Swords and Plowshares: American Evangelicals on War, 1937-1973