Of all the names of Jesus,
perhaps the most surprising of all
is Immanuel God with us
because Jesus' birth and His life, His death and His resurrection.
All of who He is points to this reality
time and time again, and that is that God
longs to be with His people
from the Garden of Eden when God created humans
and placed them in this garden to be with Him, to fellowship with Him,
to the crossing of the Red Sea and the wandering in the wilderness.
When God's presence protected His people through the pillar of cloud by day
and the Tower of Fire by night to God's
presence dwelling above the Tabernacle and in His temple
over the Ark of the Covenant through his Shekinah glory...
time and time again, we see God moving to be with His people.
And yet the climax of this, this
movement of love
is when God Himself took on flesh
to live here among us, the Creator
taking on the limitations of a created
so that He might be with us.
Immanuel. God with us.
This is the message that the angel
gives Mary and Joseph in Matthew
chapter 1:23 He says, "The Virgin will conceive and give birth to a son,
and they will call him Immanuel, which means God with us."
This is the fulfillment of a prophecy from the Old Testament
because again and again, God's heart was to be with His people.
And Jesus, Immanuel was God's plan all along.
When Jesus took on flesh to be with us,
He experienced the full spectrum of human emotion.
Jesus knows what it's like to be tired and sad,
to be happy and overjoyed to find the comfort in friendship
and in laughter and in a meal that is deliciously prepared.
He knows what it's like to fall into
bed, exhausted at the end of a long day.
He knows what it's like to be betrayed by a friend.
He knows the joy and comfort of an embrace.
Jesus knows what it is to be human,
and He lived life as us yet without sin
so that He might be the perfect sacrifice
so that we
might have a chance to spend
all of eternity with Him.
This was His plan.
God with us so that we might be with Him forever.
And when we leaf through the Bible to the very last book,
the Book of Revelation, we find in one of the last chapters this beautiful imagery
that God will once again dwell with His people
and that we, the people of God
will enjoy his presence forever.
And yet, Jesus, Jesus
will always have a human body
because God has united Himself with humanity forever.
We will never be separated from Him.
Those who belong to Jesus, those who believe in Him,
those who are His people
will enjoy His presence forever and ever.
This is the gift of Immanuel.
This is the gift of God with us.
So these are some great conversations to be having with our children
with our families this Christmas season
that the gift of Jesus is not just a baby born in a manger.
The gift of Jesus is the gift of life forever with Him,
and because He invites us to be with Him.
We also can turn around and invite others into that gift as well.
One fun, creative idea you might do
is to set up a mobile hot chocolate bar
and perhaps make a big batch of it
in the back of your van or your car with some styrofoam cups and drive
around town and drive to those places where Jesus Himself would have gone.
He was the one who ate with tax collectors and sinners and prostitutes.
He went to those places other people didn't want to go to
so that He might invite them into His kingdom as well.
So perhaps consider extending a hot chocolate to those who are homeless,
those who are hopeless and tell them of the gift of Jesus.
Whatever you do this Christmas season,
I hope you and your family find joy in Jesus as you unwrap His names one by one.