Names had a great deal of importance in the Bible and continue to be important today.

There are many names given to Jesus in the Bible:

* Each one gives us a clearer & fuller picture of who He is and what He means to us.

* His name JESUS means “God saves!” He is God’s salvation for us.

*He is the Messiah, the Christ, meaning “Anointed One” – He is our King and Lord.

Another name given is IMMANUEL, meaning God is with us.The Hebrew name Immanuel occurs twice in the Old Testament, both times in Isaiah, both in prophecies concerning the Messiah

Seven centuries later, Joseph finds Mary, his wife to be, with child and is understandably disgruntled. But an angel from God visits him in a dream and quotes Isaiah, saying that Joseph's little family is the target of a famous, seven-hundred-year-old prophecy. The Child will be called Immanuel

Most of us are comfortable with the Christmas story. Maybe we’re so familiar that it’s become part fable and part legend in our minds. Some have sentimentalized it so much that they skim along on a superficial level, counting down the remaining shopping days, stressing about all the things to do, while neglecting the Nativity.

God’s desire is not for us to be caught up in commercialism. This is His desire. He wants to be with us, not separated from us:

* When God created Adam and Eve, He was with them in the Garden of Eden.

*He walks with them and commune with them, until one day Adam and Eve hide from Him.

*God did not hide from man; man first hides from God, because man is guilty. They disobeyed and sinned against God.

*God was the One calling out to Adam and Eve, “Where are you?” (Gen 3:9)

The message of the Bible is not about the desire of man to be with God.

* It is all about the desire of God to be with man.

* Moses tells the people, “If …you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for Him with all your heart and with all your soul.” (Deut 4:29) We have hope in this life because Christ came down to be with us.

In his grace and mercy, God provided a second Adam who could be the perfect sacrifice. God himself came to Earth as a man. Jesus Christ, the second member of the Trinity, was born of a woman to become a man so that the perfect sacrifice could be made. Jesus was God, but He was also man as God intended man to be—sinless. He was crucified on the cross of Calvary. He shed His blood and paid the penalty for our sins, and was raised from the dead, conquering death, the judgment which God had brought upon man because of sin.

Unlike in this story, it is good to see glimpses of the future and find hope in it. Prophets in the Old Testament looked forward to the coming of the Messiah, the coming of Immanuel, God with Us.

Christ taking the form of a man was different than how other religions pictured their gods.

Pagan gods, rather consistently, are very human, and usually not in a very nice way. If you cast your mind over the Greek and Roman panoply, you’ll see that the gods were greedy, lustful, vengeful, jealous, mischievous, vindictive, and impulsive. And always, these characteristics showed themselves randomly. The one consistent thing about the pagan gods was that they were unpredictable, arbitrary, and capricious. For all that they mimicked human behaviors, they were impossible to understand. One could only try to avoid and placate them. For that reason, just like the children of abusive parents, pagan worshippers weren’t motivated by morality. Rather, their goal, always, was to avoid abuse, no matter what it took.

Islam teaches that Allah is The Unique, The Single, the sole One deserving of worship. There is nothing like Him. Images of Allaah cannot be drawn, and He is not compared to His creation. For this reason, unlike some Christian and Hindu books and homes, you do not find images or pictures of Allaah. Mosques never contain images of Allaah, as Allaah cannot be envisioned.

Allah would never take the form of a man, but Jesus Christ did become a man. Christ humbled himself and came in the form of a baby born in a manger. Joseph and Mary did not raise Jesus in Rome, Athens, or Jerusalem.

The Christmas season can be a challenge for all of us with our busy lives, travel, the weather, and many other demands.

Whether we are resting in the warm glow of a fireplace or suffering from second degree burns, we have hope, love, and peace in our lives because of Immanuel.

Socrates taught for 40 years, Plato for 50, Aristotle for 40, and Jesus for only 3. Yet the influence of Christ's 3-year ministry infinitely transcends the impact left by the combined 130 years of teaching from these men who were among the greatest philosophers of all antiquity. Christ’s three-year ministry, death, and resurrection created more hope to more people than all of history. We even divide history between the time before Christ and the time after his birth.

Let us each day focus on the wonderful blessings we have in our lives because of Immanuel, God with us.