IMMANUEL

Immanuel
- it's a unique hebrew name that simply means, "God with us."

Unique indeed...my desk dictionary with "60,00 entries and hundreds of new words" has no reference to it at all.

Unique indeed...because it describes something that is almost beyond imagination:

*That God (visible, tangible, human, interactive, present now) could actually be here among us. The God who made the cosmos?
The God who thunders from heaven?
The God who was and is and is to come?
God?!

It took something special...God acting as father, and a virgin acting as the bearer of His special presence, and a young man willing to believe and be the human representation of father as they together would carry a God-man infant to birth and through childhood. (Check out the precise and careful language of Matthew 1:1- "of whom"- feminine, singular)

And that is exactly what happened.

It took a Joseph (see prior blog) who would act as stand-in earthly father and believe that what was happening to his fiance was indeed an act of God for a God-sized purpose. It took an entirely humble and resolute man who would let scurrilous words fall to the ground and angelic words prevail...and all his hopes for a "normal" life disappear suddenly. It took an immense spirit to live out "He must increase and I must decrease" dynamics from the point of conception onwards and daily.

It took a young woman (between 12-13) who would believe, allow herself to be an instrument of divine impregnation and then carry this God-person in gestation and until delivery. And then raise Him and watch Him embark on a God-sized mission and give His life for it.

Read again the birth narratives and the life of Jesus....and ponder the dynamics that Mary and Joseph had to deal with regularly that Immanuel might come and live out His name.

And suddenly it dawns on me that it takes these dynamics still for Immanuel to presence Himself in our homes and churches. It takes humility, steadfastness, faith, self-denial and so much more - daily - for Immanuel to feel welcomed among us.

"O come, O come Immanuel".........this Christmas.

Selah...

David