Every year at Christmas time The Lord brings to my mind something to focus on about Him. It took me a long time figure that out because every year a certain theme would resonate over and over again in my mind. I always assumed that it was from a word from my pastor or something that media was hammering in my head until a few years ago I paid attention and it seemed to come out of nowhere. Just random thoughts. I usually share this with Alex and that becomes our focus for the Christmas season.
This year I have had "Immanuel" on my mind. I remember hearing Beth Moore teach on this from her study, "Jesus The One and Only" and she kept calling Him "The With Us God". This Christmas, I kept thinking about The With Us God. Over and over in Scripture God tells us that He is with us. One of my favorite verses is Joshua 1:9, "9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
In Genesis 26:24 and 28:15, God tells Abraham that He will be with Him. Joshua 3:7, God informs Joshua that He would be with him in the same way He was with Moses. The angel of the LORD appears to Gideon in Judges 6:12 and lets Him know that God is with him. He promises to be with Israel in Isaiah 41:10.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14
When the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, He was first introduced in Matthew 1:23 as Immanuel, "God With Us". And when the Word ascended into Heaven in Matthew 28:20, He told His disciples, "... behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
He is with us. He is with us always. God has always been about making a way to dwell with us until we could dwell with Him. From the garden of Eden where He walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day, to appearing to Moses and talking to him as a friend, to the Tent of Meeting, The Most Holy Place, to sending His Son as an offering... God coming down in human form to walk around with us, teach us, sacrifice Himself and die as the punishment for our sins so that we could be blameless and holy and be with Him eternally.
God doesn't need us. He loves us. He desires a relationship with us because of that love. He pursues us. I am amazed and in awe.
This Christmas has been a blur of crazy and sickness and overwhelming tiredness... but in the midst of it all I have been extremely aware of His Presence. Not a fleeting presence that comes with the Christmas season, but an awareness that He is with me. In the crazy. In the sickness. In the laughter and the so tired I can't think straight. He is with me because He loves me and likes hanging out with me. He is the "With me God". He made a way to be with me until I can join Him eternally in Heaven.
He made a way for you too. He is the With Us God.
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