“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Flesh and Glory — an odd combination — but that is what Christmas is.

Christmas is the Impossible, the joining into perfect oneness — in one Person, the Word who is Life and Light — the Glory and the Flesh.

God’s glory tabernacled in the original tabernacle and Temple; now that Glory is personally present in the Word made Flesh.

The Glory is the glory of the “One and Only” — an allusion to the Shema and to the Old Testament word “echad” (one), the One and Only God. The Word is Singular, Particular, and Irreducibly Unique.

This Glorious One and Only Now Flesh is “full of grace and truth.” Both grace and truth, not one or the other.