John 1:1-2, 14: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  The Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We observed His glory, the glory as the One and Only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

You're correct; there is no “I Am” statement in these verses. This opening statement of the entire New Testament record sets the backdrop against which all prophesy leading to and all actions taken during and since the New Testament. Firstly, it places the Son in a time expression, “In the beginning”, prior to all creative acts, before Elohim puffed the big bang. Secondly, it sets out why Jesus came. He came for the express purpose of taking on flesh, that we might observe Him and experience His glory.

This syllogism John set out for us says it all quite plainly:
     The Word was God, (John 1:1)
               The Word became flesh,  (John 1:14)
                         Therefore, God became flesh.

In the Garden Elohim walked with Adam and Eve. He appeared to and spoke with their progeny, even after Cain committed murder. By the time of Noah, the people turned their backs on Elohim to such an extent that He started over. When Noah's descendants became deaf to YHWH, He found a devout man in Ur, Abram. Eventually their relationship so altered Abram that his given name was no longer valid, so El Elyon changed it to Abraham.

Much later YHWH again rescues His people from Egypt and leads them to a special place where He offers them the intimacy they'd lost while in Egypt. They refused, so YHWH explicitly writes in stone the description of their first love, the relationship known in Eden. His finger penned ten descriptors and their fertile minds created an impenetrable, insulated wall of six-hundred twenty rules.

Millennia pass. God's chosen people pendulum swing through periods of intense devotion to and even more intense rejection of YHWH.  As the New Testament opens John documents Abba's ongoing effort to bring His people into relationship with Him. He wraps Himself in flesh!  Flesh that blatantly reveals His nature and desires. Flesh with which you and I may interact. Flesh in which Jesus walks the holy life Elohim intended when Adam and Eve knew permeating intimacy; a life where every cell and synapse was saturated with the energizing Breath of Elohim.

This intimate life which His chosen people rejected is now made available to us.  All that Jesus was and did, we are enabled to experience through the Spirit's indwelling. Jesus makes this clear throughout His ministry, "I assure you:” Jesus argued, “The one who believes in Me will also do the works that I do.  And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.“ (John 14:12)

These words, offered in defense of His divinity, speak directly to the explosive miraculous. And they also apply to living the life Abba intends for us.  Later Jesus asserts that His return to His Father is necessary. His departure clears the path for the advent of the Spirit (John 16:7), Who will imbue us with power or dynamic ability to live the life, making witnesses of us. (Acts 1:8) A witness is one who testifies of that which has been experienced or directly observed.  

If it's been heard from others it's considered hearsay and may not be offered as testimony. Abba walked and talked with Adam and Eve, their knowledge of Him was based in the intimacy they shared with Him.  Jesus' birth, life, death and resurrection testified of the Father's reality, exhibiting the Father's person and love. (John 8:14)  And now the mantle has passed – we are to be His witnesses.  Does your life offer testimony based in intimacy or do you spout hearsay?