Immanuel—“God With Us”
With Christmas coming soon, the shops are filled with people. Often, angry people. Families fight over who gets to put certain ornaments on the tree. TV violence seems to worsen, often leading to violence in real life. People lose jobs, loved ones, homes. Negativity and pain are more acute. How can someone ever find the true meaning of Christmas with the world portraying it as such a commercial holiday?
Isaiah 7:14
“Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”
There are signs everywhere. Street signs tell you to stop, yield, merge, and do not enter. Interstate signs tell you exit numbers, restaurants and gas stations at each exit, and even the names of towns you can find if you get off the interstate to see them.
The engineers who created the signs knew we would need them. Especially for the directionally challenged! If four cars are coming to a crossroad and no one has a stop sign, what will happen? Exactly. CRASH!
God is the master of signs. Throughout the Bible, He is constantly putting signs on the road of each person’s life as if to say “Come this way and follow me” or “Don’t go down that road”.
God’s biggest sign was the sign of His son. His biggest, and perhaps one of His last really big signs signifying His love for us. Why? Because He knew we needed more than just signs from God.
He knew we needed Immanuel, Jesus, which literally translated means “God with us.” God gave us so much more than a sign when He sent Jesus to earth. He gave us Himself—the ultimate sign of sacrifice and love—and the packaging He sent was not necessarily something to catch your eye.
A dirty manger and a virgin teenager with a bunch of cows and donkeys and sheep? Is that the packaging one would expect God to wrap Himself in to show the world that He was in fact for us?
The answer is yes. To get our attention, God entered the world in a very small town so quietly, so humbly, so simply to show that He gets it. He gets us. We couldn’t find Him with all the signs He gave. So He gave the ultimate sign: Immanuel.
He came to us. He is Immanuel. And He is right here, with us, this Christmas.
Don't miss Him!
With Christmas coming soon, the shops are filled with people. Often, angry people. Families fight over who gets to put certain ornaments on the tree. TV violence seems to worsen, often leading to violence in real life. People lose jobs, loved ones, homes. Negativity and pain are more acute. How can someone ever find the true meaning of Christmas with the world portraying it as such a commercial holiday?
Isaiah 7:14
“Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”
There are signs everywhere. Street signs tell you to stop, yield, merge, and do not enter. Interstate signs tell you exit numbers, restaurants and gas stations at each exit, and even the names of towns you can find if you get off the interstate to see them.
The engineers who created the signs knew we would need them. Especially for the directionally challenged! If four cars are coming to a crossroad and no one has a stop sign, what will happen? Exactly. CRASH!
God is the master of signs. Throughout the Bible, He is constantly putting signs on the road of each person’s life as if to say “Come this way and follow me” or “Don’t go down that road”.
God’s biggest sign was the sign of His son. His biggest, and perhaps one of His last really big signs signifying His love for us. Why? Because He knew we needed more than just signs from God.
He knew we needed Immanuel, Jesus, which literally translated means “God with us.” God gave us so much more than a sign when He sent Jesus to earth. He gave us Himself—the ultimate sign of sacrifice and love—and the packaging He sent was not necessarily something to catch your eye.
A dirty manger and a virgin teenager with a bunch of cows and donkeys and sheep? Is that the packaging one would expect God to wrap Himself in to show the world that He was in fact for us?
The answer is yes. To get our attention, God entered the world in a very small town so quietly, so humbly, so simply to show that He gets it. He gets us. We couldn’t find Him with all the signs He gave. So He gave the ultimate sign: Immanuel.
He came to us. He is Immanuel. And He is right here, with us, this Christmas.
Don't miss Him!
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