“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel (which means, God with us).” -Matthew 1:23
Immanuel. God with us. What does this mean? One of the craziest things about God is that He “became flesh.” He became human in order to relate to us, feel our pain, walk with us, grieve with us, teach us, and ultimately save us. He comes in a spiritual way and His nature is to come to us when we are in a low place, but He also literally came to us in the form of a human for 33 years. That 33 years of life that He chose to live completely changes everything and the fact that He was with us for that time in a physical way means that He is still with us thousands of years later and we can trust in Him as he remains with us. As Christians we claim to be able to trust God. I, like most people, deal with trust issues. I have put my trust in other people who said that they love me and then they walked away. I have seen friends change, and I have changed. They are human. I am human. As flawed humans, we are not always willing to stay with others when things get difficult, and I’m sure that everyone reading this can think of a time when a person they thought they could rely on left during a time when they were needed. But as I already said, we can trust in the Father because He is with us.
I remember a few years ago when my cousin Seth was in a life-threatening car accident. He ended up surviving, but not without losing one of his legs. My aunt Tabby
loved Seth, and so in his long journey to recovery and normalcy, she took a year-long
absence from work without pay to be with him. She was not rich and probably had no
idea how the bills were going to get paid, but she knew one thing: her child was so
immensely valuable to her that he was worth being with.
During this life, we are going to walk through immense darkness. If you haven’t
yet, you will. I am a person who has and continues to struggle with anxiety, depression, insecurity, and trauma. If you are a Christian reading this, maybe your immediate thought is “well if you just believe harder, God will turn your mess into a masterpiece!” I whole-heartedly believe that He will; however, I think that belief in God doesn’t just simply consist of “giving it to God” and then acting like everything’s fine. Sometimes, things are not fine. The simple truth is that God never once promised us that life would be easy and that we would never go through difficult circumstances. He never promised us that we will always be okay. It’s okay to not be okay, because what He did promise us is that he will NEVER leave us (see Matthew 28:20). A lot of times, our hearts are most receptive of Jesus when we are at the end of our rope. It’s the moment that we’ve tried to gain security from everywhere else and Jesus is all we have left. It’s the moment when the hole in our heart is so incredibly deep that only God’s love can fill it. When we are at rock bottom, God is that rock at the bottom.
So why should you care? You’ve probably heard a million sermons that have left you with the impression that God is there if you need Him. But here’s why you should care: You should care because God is not a god whose acceptance we try and work for. After commitment to and active faith in Him, Jesus has saved us and now his Spirit transforms our hearts and minds to think more like Him if we surrender to His will for our life. That’s a journey, but it’s a journey that is worth it! There is no room anymore for “going to church” because you have to or doing the whole religious thing so that God hopefully doesn’t send you to hell when you die. A transformed heart isn’t worried about being sent to hell; a transformed heart says “I want a relationship with Jesus right here on earth as well as one day in heaven because Jesus loves me and is
WITH me!” You should care because God is with us!
Once we begin to grasp Jesus’s love for us, it changes everything. Psalm 22:1 and Matthew 27:46 claim that Jesus was abandoned by God. He was abandoned so that we will never have to be. He was left alone so that we will NEVER have to walk through the fire alone. He “gave up his spirit” so that we could “receive the Holy Spirit” (the Holy Spirit also changes everything! See Romans 8, Matthew 27:50). He died so that we could have life-and that’s where our hope comes from as we limp towards heaven. Just like my aunt believed her son was worth being with, God believes that you are so immensely valuable that you are worth being with when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death. As you read this right now, you may feel like things will never be okay. It’s okay to feel that way. Just know that God’s love will pursue you and that He is with you and you can trust Him. And that is why I have hope. Immanuel. God with us.