“Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’” Matthew 1:23 NLT
When God promised the Messiah would come in a supernatural way to save the world, He gave Him an amazing and distinctive name. He named Him “Emmanuel” and clarified that the name means “God with us.”
Let’s be honest – in our immaturity and self-focus, if we could give God come to earth a name describing who He would be to us, we might think of many other things to put in contention. Perhaps our desires could be summed up with one thought: We want God to be FOR us. We want Him to take all His wonderful characteristics, take all of who He is, and be FOR us.
That’s what He wants too. The problem comes when we want to define what being FOR us looks like. We imagine if God is for us, we will win in all situations. We will always be well. Our progress will always be up and to the right. Life will be smooth sailing when a God of that capacity, the Ruler of the world, is for us. He’s on our side, right?
He is FOR us, but the way being for us gets its strength is that He is WITH us. You can be for someone yet be distant and unable to make a difference because of it. But when you are with someone, you are available with all your strength, power, compassion, and every resource.
God has always been for us. But because of Jesus’ compassion toward us and commitment to us, He came to earth to be WITH us. Jesus took on humanity and lived His life here on this earth, both God and perfect man. He was our rescue from sin and death and separation from God because He was our perfect sacrifice. He experienced all that we experience and understands us completely. Now through His Spirit He is with us always, helping us to love and live like Him. He is for us, but it’s far more. He is WITH us, so there is never a reason to be distant. This is the reason Jesus was born.
As we celebrate this Christmas, may we remember that Jesus is God with us in our mess. He is God with us in our pain and exhaustion. He is with us in our celebration and joy. He is with us in good times and bad. He is with us. Always.
- Think about it. There is never a place you can be where He is not with you. Thank Him and walk in the joy of close companionship today.