As Ramadan draws to a close (it ends tonight), those who are celebrating it will be participating in Laylat Al Qadr.  On this night, centuries ago, the prophet Mohammad is said to have received the first of the divine revelations which would eventually become the Qur'an.  Laylat Al Qadr is a night in which God (Allah) visited and manifested himself to his human creation in a way, as Muslims see it, he had not done so before.  It is a night of revelation, a night of divine unfolding, a night in which the distant and unknowable God expressed himself in ways his human creation could understand.

     In this understanding is Laylat Al Qadr's greatest contribution to humanness.  By affirming the possibility of revelation, Laylat Al Qadr reminds us that whether we believe it or not, God speaks.  God speaks through nature, God speaks through image, and God speaks through word.  Life is the speech of God.
     How much more remarkable do I therefore find the apostle John's understanding of word, which he articulated several centuries before Mohammad walked upon the earth.  Not only does God communicate himself through the written word (which Jew, Muslim, and Christian alike confirm), but he communicates himself by showing us, directly and visibly in the person of Jesus, who he most deeply is.
     John showed us that although as Laylat al Qadr affirms, we do well to treasure the words of God, we come to know God most fully when we see him face to face.
     And everyone can know him.