Monday, November 27, 2017

Emmanuel

Here we are again, in the season of Advent. I did not grow up in a church that followed the four Sundays of Advent with a wreath and candles lit one after the other during those Sundays. It was a recent addition to my celebration in my present church where I found and hungered for those words and acts of preparation for His coming. Unfortunately, with the passage of leadership, my church no longer follows this tradition. I miss it.

So, in light of this hunger for my own personal preparation, I've begun to write something of my thoughts regarding this holy season. Tonight, in time with Abba, I was struck by this name given to Jesus; Emmanuel, God with us.

If we take a moment and let that idea sink in we may find ourselves in awe of the very act of birth, the birth of this child we believe was conceived in mystery and miracle. We who follow Jesus believe He was God in the flesh, God with us. He began human life as we all do, as a babe.

Now I can't presume to know what it was for Him to find Himself wrapped in baby flesh fresh from the womb. Did He look into His mother's eyes and see and know who she was and who He was yet limited by baby flesh? We really don't understand incarnation from His point of view. It is and always will be a mystery. What I do believe is this, God was flesh and dwelt among us as first a baby, then toddler, then child, then teenager, then a young man at Joseph's side learning a skill He would not use. He then became fully a man set apart to do what only He could do, offer salvation to the whole world. These are the core beliefs of any who profess to follow Him, facts only appropriated through faith.

God with us. It brings either belief or unbelief. There isn't much middle ground here. In my belief, I am stunned again at the act of coming to be one of us for a time; to know hunger, thirst, weariness, joy, sorrow, anger, frustration, temptation, love.

If we allow ourselves to be honest, setting aside our religion, we will know we are hungry for this kind of God who would do such a thing, become like us, fully man and fully God.  Again, I am in awe of the mystery of incarnation.

I need Emmanual, God with me more than I can imagine and I did allow myself to taste again the hunger of needing His "with us" tonight.

We can move past a corporate knowing and awe and allow our own hearts to hear and know His "with us" at the personal level He truly came to introduce us to. Remember in that last night before His arrest He told the eleven remaining disciples He was one with the Father and they were one with Him. He's talking about His "with us" and how it might be for us.

Sin always wants to come in and corrupt the holy relationship He has set in place. We fall often and for some of us, we fall hard. We may have marveled at His "with us" during those mountaintop experiences He brings us to from time to time, but it is when sin has done it's dirty work is when we need His "with us". We are dead in the water without His "with us" to guide us along.

We think we've been separated when sin comes. Frankly, I no longer believe that. There is a shift in the relationship but He's not departed. He is there at our lowest points. It really is scandalous what this "with us" means in those dark places we find ourselves in. I am reminded though of some of His last words recorded before being taken up to heaven, "Lo, I am with you always." There is no caveat to that kind of "with us" that  may say "I am with you until you really blow it then you are sort of on your own until you come to your senses". I don't read that anywhere and yet too often we think that is how He responds to us.

So I am struck with the scandal of His "with us" when all others might depart. I am struck with knowing He was with me wherever I may have wandered and His "with us" has come to find me when I'd rather run and hid from His loving gaze.

Emmanuel, God with us, an essential component of Advent if we are to truly celebrate His coming.

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