Emmanuel: God With Us

God blessed my wife and me with two Christmas babies. Our daughter, born on Dec. 8, has the middle name Noel. To our son, born on Dec. 26, we gave the middle name Emmanuel (“God with us”). As Christmas rolls around each year, they are reminders of the special child, born of God, in very nature God (Philippians 2:6) who truly was “God with us.”

“God with us.” Why is that important? Couldn’t God have just remained outside space and time and had good feelings toward us? “Peace on earth and good will” makes for beautiful Christmas cards and sentimental songs, but is it enough? Why did God have to be “with us”?

Because we were lost. Lost in darkness. Lost in our own failures. Lost in our weakness and brokenness. We needed a God who would come for us – to “seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). We couldn’t climb out of the pit our first father Adam dug for us and that each of us just digs deeper. The Bible calls that pit “sin.”

“God with us.” The sinless Son of God took all our sin ― past, present, and future ― and paid the price to set us free. God with us means we can ― through faith ― be forever with God. That is the good news of Christmas!

What does it mean to you to know that God would send his only Son for you – to be God with you? Has that truth every really hit home to your heart?

Lord Jesus, thank you for becoming Emmanuel – God with us! What greater gift could you have given us but yourself? You saw our powerlessness and lifted us up: from darkness to light, from death to life, from bondage to freedom. Thank you that by faith we can be with you forever. Amen.

Go Deeper ― Ask God to make his amazing love real to you this Christmas — and then share it with someone who has never understood this good news of great joy!