Immanuel: God With Us In Our Sorrow
Photo by Gareth Harper on Unsplash
Christmas is here. The music. the decorations. The trees.
As well as the stress of gift buying. The constraints of budgets. The frenetic activity.
Even with my manger scenes adorning the mantel and Silent Night resounding from the radio, in the whirl of it all, I easily miss the point. The wonder and mystery of the season is the Christ child who gave us the physical picture of our Lord’s reality. He is WITH us.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Philippians 2:5-8 ESV]
Think about it. Jesus didn’t have to condescend to the indignity of the human experience. He choose the limitations of flesh in order to be WITH us. To walk among us. To experience joy and grief. To expose Himself to the pain of betrayal and the injustice of false accusation.
Matthew 1:23 quotes Isaiah 7:14 to show how Jesus fulfilled prophecy.
“‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means God with us).”
Immanuel. God WITH us.
Immanuel Celebration
Last month, in November, we engaged in a Thanksgiving Challenge. For four weeks we challenged ourselves to express thanksgiving over items we’re usually not grateful for.
Now, for the month of December, we’re going to travel back through those four categories and celebrate—which might feel as counter-intuitive as thanking the Lord for these things. But we’re not celebrating our experience of sorrow. We’re celebrating never being alone in that situation.
GOD IS WITH US. In everything.
God With Us In Our Sorrows
When we thanked God for our sorrows, we dared to believe He would redeem and restore them. Thanking Him for grief declares He is bigger than our worst moment and stronger than our worst pain.
But there’s more. There’s so much more that it’s almost impossible to realize the magnitude of the good news.
Not only is He mightier than our pain, He stands right in the middle of it with us. We are not alone, finding some way to faithfully thank Him while the pain threatens to wash us away, because He stands over, under, and beside us the entire time.
I wonder how many times I have railed against Him, complaining of the bad situation I feel certain He does not see, when all along He taps gently on my shoulder, beckoning me to turn around and jump into His arms.
In the book of Judah, Gideon felt abandoned as his people were ruled by cruel Midianites. An angel appears to him and declares, “The Lord is with you...”
But Gideon responds, “...if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us?” (Judges 6:13-14)
THIS is why I love scripture so much. It’s honest and real. Transparent. I’ve asked the same question as Gideon. When it doesn’t feel like God is with me. When circumstances appear like He must have looked away.
Yet, He is Immanuel. God with us.
THAT is the significance of the baby in the manger and all the trappings we’ve layered on top of Christmas. We’re celebrating the God who comes to us. Who doesn’t make us work our way to Him.
Jesus— with us in our sorrows.
Jesus— with us in our grief.
Jesus— with us in our hardest place.
He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. (Isaiah 53:3 ESV)
Hallelujah! That’s something to celebrate.
Next week we’ll celebrate Immanuel: God WITH us when others sin against us.