Matthew 1:23 23 "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel"--which means, "God with us." Emmanuel, “God with us.”
This name speaks to the union of God and man in the person of Christ. The union of these two natures represents the idea that purpose and relationship can exist in perfection, even in face of all the sufferings of our lives.
Isaiah 53:3 He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
The very name “Emmanuel,” is the foretelling of the perfection Christ through His sacrifice on the cross, came to accomplish in us. He came to redeem us perfectly from brokenness and pretending to lives lived in the full value of our potential and purpose, and that, with a whole, pure, and unbroken relationship with our maker.
Psalm 139:3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
God with us... God who clothes us in the perfection His birth, death, and resurrection accomplished. And as our clothier and maker, He made His perfection to fit us, though we often lack any attempt and an adequate appreciation for it.
God with us... God who is familiar with all our suffering, with all of our particular dispositions that pit us in direct opposition to the Lordship of Christ in our lives. God who is familiar with us in our grief and sorrow, our emotional peaks and valleys, proudest and most humiliating moments, those public and private. He is familiar, He is with us and still He loves us. He knows us in every way. Even in those moments where we wish we could have turned away from our own selves He remained “God with us” with eyes fixed on us and a heart committed to love us without any promise of reciprocation or recognition.
As you conclude your sorted Christmas celebrations and get settled in to what remains of this year, take peace in this thought, Jesus loves you and me enough to be our very personal, very unashamed, Emmanuel. He is as close to each of us as the sound of His name upon our lips. The wholeness only He can give is as close as recognizing that His rescuing Lordship is the power in the name, Emmanuel. Merry Christmas to all and to all... a very blessed goodnight!