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GOD With Us
God With Us
I haven’t said much about Christmas this year, even thought it’s my favorite holiday. I guess everything else that has been going on has been overshadowing what for me is the greatest time of the year. I know there are some who are a little uncomfortable with singing about and celebrating Christmas as a church. Those who are of that opinion generally believe that we should celebrate his birth and death every week when we gather on Sundays, not just once a year, and should not honor one day above another.
There’s more to say on that topic, but while I understand where that view is coming from I don’t believe it’s the way to view holidays like Christmas or Easter (read Romans 14:5-9 for something to chew on regarding this issue). I believe Christmas—whether or not it is the day Jesus was born—should be celebrated because it is the recognition of God’s gift to the world. Jesus comes in the most unusual way. He isn’t born with a lot of fanfare considering how monumental this moment was for the world, and the only visitors after he was born that night were a few poor shepherds who were camped just outside of town. No royal treatment. No royal gifts (the wise men probably didn’t show up for quite a while after Jesus’ birth—definitely not the night he was born). No parades. Just a smelly manger with some animals and a bunch of curious men that just walked in— an odd way for the Savior of the world to be brought into existence. And yet, Jesus’ birth was the most significant moment to date in human history. It provided hope after thousands of years of the world’s pain heartache. It revealed to man that God had not forgotten His promise made in the Garden to Eve, the covenant He made with Abraham in the desert, or His relationship with the people of Israel. God had not only not forgotten, He decided to come in a personal way with a personal name—Immanuel, which means “God with us” in Hebrew.
If there’s ever a time we need to be reminded of this name of Jesus, it is now. “God with us” is a promise that echoes across time and space, from the dawn of creation to the current year of 2020 and beyond. God has not forgotten us. He never did. He is with us, even now.
-Scott McFarland
