The good news for this week is that the world is changed and saved when God the Son comes down here. “Immanuel, which means, ‘God with us.”
Yes, that’s it.
God with us.
God with us in all our flesh-and-blood complaints and messiness. “Christ among the pots and pans” as Teresa of Avila put it. Christ among the barn animals, our dogs and kitties, our horses and cows, and then those quirky magi astrologers and then all the rest of the Gospel’s curious cast of characters.
God with us.
God with the prostitutes and the lepers and the outcast in whose company Jesus would delight again and again. God at the dinner table with a chive stuck between his incisors. God lifting the cup of wine to his lips.
God with us.
God with the little children whose warm brows he touched and blessed. God smiling when a baby was shown to him by a proud new mother. God with us in all our ordinary times and days. God with us, as Jesus would say to bookend Matthew’s gospel, even unto the end of the ages.
Always. With us. Immanuel.
Immanuel is God-with-us in the cancer clinic and at the local nursing home where bodies slump pitifully in wheelchairs pushed up against the hallway walls. Immanuel is God-with-us when the pink slip comes and when the beloved child sneers, "I hate you!"
Immanuel is God-with-us when you pack the Christmas decorations away and, with an aching heart, you realize afresh that your one child never did call over the holidays. Not once.
Immanuel is God-with-us when your dear wife or mother stares at you with an Alzheimer's glaze and absently asks, "What was your name again, dear?"
Ever and always Jesus stares straight into you with his two good eyes and he does so not only when you can smile back but most certainly also when your own eyes are full of tears. In fact, Jesus is Immanuel, "God with you" even in those times when you are so angry with God that you refuse to meet his eyes. But even when you feel like you can't look at him, he never looks away from you. He can't. His name says it all.
Immanuel watches over us as we reflect: "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." (Isaiah 9:6).
Lord I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that on Christmas Day we may know that you have come, just as promised. My Christmas blessings to all of you for your prayers and support throughout the year. May Immanuel bring you peace and joy.
