Immanuel
I wonder if at the same time God was dialoguing within Himself about His plans to create the world, He also planned what He would do to redeem it. Father, Son, and Spirit, knew the humans they would create would exercise the free-will they’d be given. God knew we would choose to move away from Him, and so He devised a plan to ensure we could return. He also worked out and set in place how the whole of what He would create would be restored, never to be corrupted again.
The day The Son of God entered a young virgin girl, that redemptive plan was set in motion. When Jesus was born, so was the age of grace; one bookend set on a shelf that would archive humankind’s response to a God determined to express the depth of His love.
Christmastime has a way of magnifying wherever we find ourselves on the emotional spectrum. Grieving people grieve more deeply. Suffering people feel their suffering more strongly. Joyful people’s joy finds broader expression. Contented hearts find greater depths of fulfillment.
I pray that today you would experience the transformative power of Immanuel. Whatever the condition of your fragile heart, “God with us” means, at a minimum, you are not alone. God is very aware of your deepest needs, desires, dreams… and means to meet you there. It strikes me this morning…. that reality is everything.
Behold, the virgin shall conceive
and bear a son,
and shall call his name Immanuel.
~ Isaiah 7:14 ~
Merry Christmas ~
5 Comments
Kathie
I just reread your blog. I think this Christmas I thought about the name “Immanuel” more than I ever have before…I truly felt God with me and walking with me…providing strength and grace.
I love your thoughts and writings and I love you! May God continue to guide your thoughts and your writings because you are ministering and serving the Lord in a beautiful way.
Nancy
It is truly wonderful that not only is God with us, He sought and continually seeks us so that we can have fellowship with him. In all other religions man has to seek and work for a relationship with God. Our God seeks us and desires a relationship with us. And he goes to any length, even to die, to bring us back to Himself. This is too wonderful for words and truly too profound to fully grasp. To think that the baby the Wise Men sought out was God incarnate. God in a stable, housed with the animals. We can only marvel at this indescribable gift and that God came — for us.
Stacy
True and beautiful words! Immanuel, God with us- Your glory in the highest always runs down to meet us, those who are in the trenches. We can feel You holding the broken and we’re never alone, never alone- and we lean into You and let You love us…. The only One who loves us to death and back to the real and forever life… Amen.
Merry Christmas, Anne!
Anne Barbour
Amen.
Gail
Merry Christmas Anne….I love you!! Yes indeed…..we are not alone and that reality is EVERYTHING!!!!