welcome to the neighborhood

this past weekend i got sick, and i never get sick! i even lost my voice friday and saturday, which was perfect timing with the mid-high lock-in and all! anyways i bring this up because i basically stayed in bed a lot today recovering from a busy weekend, and i was reading the gospel of John and the whole first 18 verses talk about "the Word". it reminded me of my freshman year of college when i heard a story about a friend who in high school nicknamed his bed "the word" so when people asked him what he had been doing all day; he would say, "man, i have been in 'the word' all day," and people would be really impressed. i just always thought that was a funny story. obviously, john though is talking about jesus as "the Word" and the friend was talking about the bible as "the word".
anyways i love how eugene peterson rephrases the first chapter of john and says, "the Word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood." what a picture. jesus moving into our neighborhood! and it goes on to say that, "we did not recognize him" or choose to recognize him. it just makes me wonder at how many times i have failed to recognize jesus when he is right next door or even staring me straight in the face! how many times i have chosen to ignore him, because i did not have time for him or i did not want to make time for him.
just something i was thinking about. well i'm off to go spend a few hours in "the word" because i have to get up early tomorrow. peace.