Our Daily Bread Christmas: Gift Of GraceÖrnek

Immanuel. I was talking with a friend who is a newlywed and can’t wait to be a parent. He and his wife are planning and praying for a baby. They already have names picked out—and my friend’s wife isn’t even pregnant! In 735 bc the prophet Isaiah prophesied to the spiritually struggling nation of Judah: “The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’)” (Isa. 7:14). Jesus was named some 730 years before He was born! I have heard it said that all the truths of Christmas can be stated in just three words: “God with us.” We tend to focus our attention at Christmastime on the human birth of Christ. But the greater focus should be on His deity—who He really is—“God with us.” Immanuel means that we’re not isolated from a God who sits on some distant throne. He came to be with us. He had human skin and wore human clothes. When Joseph and Mary called their son by name, it was a reminder that God was in the house—literally living under the same roof. Are you alone? Feeling afraid? Have you felt that God is far off, somberly watching you from a distance? The message of Christmas is that you don’t need to be alone anymore, for Jesus has come. —K. T. Sim Immanuel. God with us.