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Immanuel



          
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"When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and accepted and  took Mary home as his wife." (Matthew 1:24)


Last year at Christmas time, an elderly woman said, “pastors preach about the busy schedules of the holidays and the need to make time in the busy schedules to meditate on the scripture and take time for prayer. These are great suggestions, but my problem is that I am not busy. I am 86 years old, estranged from my family, have eyesight issues due to  macular degeneration, and live alone. My Christmases are devoid of joyful activity.” This Christmas season, many of us spend the time without family or company. Some of you may have planned with family or friends, who probably have changed their plans due to health or other unforeseen circumstances. We may ask God why we had to be alone this Christmas when we are to celebrate the coming of Immanuel. 


We can choose to dwell on the past and feel sorry, or focus on the present and be joyful. Many times we remember the good times spent with family in previous years to regret that we cannot do it anymore. But dwelling on the past, will end up with tears and sadness. Instead, we can learn to turn my thoughts to the present and focus on how much God is blessing us right now. This year, an older man said, “I live alone in a nice place, a grocery delivery service has started in my area, I go to the senior center for lunch a few days a week, and I have time to be with God and time to write. I am blessed. God is doing something new in my life .”  


So instead of pining for the past, we can focus on the present and anticipate the future, knowing that the Christ of Bethlehem is with me and brings blessings day by day. We can enjoy the present when we begin to name the blessings God has given us today. It is a never-ending list that can bring us the joy of the Christmas season. God is bringing new things everyday. “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert.” (Isaiah 43:18-19).


God gave us the gift of His presence through Christmas. We shop around for gifts and presents to give to our dear ones.  Christmas gift is about God’s presence in out lives and the world. God coming to us and sharing the divine presence. He came to our loneliness, our desperate and despondent state to share His joy. "They will call him Immanuel Matt 1:23 --which means, God with us."  


Matthew mentions it in the closing chapter, where he quotes these words of Jesus: "I am with you always, to the end of the age." Matt 28:20. The word Immanuel appears only three times in the Bible: Isaiah 7:14, 8:8, and Matthew 1:23 . The real message of Christmas is about God’s presence (with CE). God sent His Son to be with us, His present was His Presence among us. 


Christmas brings us a message that everyone is important to God. we are reminded that Jesus came for people like the shepherds. The shepherds - not the religious elite, the politically savvy, or the rulers of the people - become the metaphor for the kind of people Jesus came to save. The birth of this child is about God coming to us in our everyday lives and saying to us, "Don't be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news." It is a message that God meets us in our pain and loneliness. God meets us in our frustration. God meets us in our daily lives, every day Monday and Wednesday and Friday. God is wanting to be a part of our lives every day. I think that's why God sent the angels to the shepherds - You don't have to be any special for God to be with you.  Christmas is to let us know that this child was for all people, even the most ordinary.


Even when we feel lonely and isolated, not being noticed or cared for as we would like to, the good news has arrived that God cares for each one of us. The Lord who created you says, “Do not be afraid, I will save you. I have called you by name. you are mine.”  (Isaiah 43:1)


A missionary team was in Russia to work among the various remote villages. It was Christmastime, and as they taught the story of Christ’s birth at an orphanage, everyone listened in amazement. They taught them story of Jesus being born in a manger, the shepherds coming to visit him and angels singing glory to god. None of the kids or the staff had ever heard it before.  The children were given paper and pencils and instructed them to write or create pictures based on the Christmas story. After the calss, children started reading their stories they wrote. Little Misha, a six year old boy came and showed them his paper. When they looked, they saw a picture he had drawn of the m anger. They were puzzled to see not one, but two babies in the manger. The child began to repeat the story accurately, until he came to the part where Mary put the baby Jesus in the manger. Then Misha started to add his own ending to the story.  "He said, ’And when Mary laid the baby in the manger, the baby Jesus looked at me and asked me if I had a place to stay. I told him I have no father or mother, and I don’t have any place to stay. Then Jesus told me that he did not have a place to be born. Jesus then told me that I could stay with him. So I got into the manger, and then Jesus looked at me and he told me I could stay with him forever." Misha was an abused child rescued by the orphanage. That night Misha knew what Gods' presence is like when he drew a picture of himself sleeping with the baby Jesus in the manger. He had found someone who would never abandon nor abuse him, someone who would stay with him forever.

We love to have friends and family around for Christmas. But the greater celebration is that God in Christ came to be with each of us so that we are never alone.


Jesus said: "I am with you always, to the end of the age." Matthew 28:20



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