Christmas Greetings to YOU!

Immanuel, God with Us-Wherever We Go

The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel (which means “God with us”).  

Matthew 1:23 NIV

One Christmas, I awoke alone in a foreign culture to a gray morning and a cold apartment, devoid of gifts, festivities, and companions. Loneliness and isolation reigned.

I pictured my family celebrating Christmas on the opposite side of the globe: the breakfast buffet, gift wrap strewn about, pajama-clad relatives. I tried to shake thoughts of family and prepared for my 8 a.m. class.

Teaching English in China had required a riveted focus on the One who called me to serve there. Challenges with language, food, and culture, although often frustrating, became exciting because God revealed Himself through His work and His presence. As I taught my classes and lived among the Chinese as the only American in my corner of a city of five million, I relished the comfort and joy of Jesus’ sweet whisper to me daily, “I am with you wherever you go . . . I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

God’s desire for us to know His presence is evidenced everywhere in scripture. On the first page of the New Testament His desire became flesh. The baby Jesus, Immanuel, is born. His life from the manger to adulthood emphasized His driving passion: to be in relationship with people, to be with us.

And then Jesus did the unthinkable. He offered His body as blood sacrifice to tear down the barrier of sin that kept us from experiencing Immanuel. Jesus’ passion for us did not stop there. Upon His return to heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in us. No closer communion of spirits is possible than God in us so that God can be with us.

As I walked to my classes that Christmas morning in China, my focus slipped from Jesus and His presence. I wallowed in self-pity, and I prayed, “Lord, help me to know you are with me today. I miss my family. I feel alone.”

I pushed the classroom door open. An unusual silence enveloped the room. Sixty students sat motionless with their eyes riveted on my face.

Then I saw it. In the corner of the classroom stood a Christmas tree, draped with lights and decorations! I gasped, and the pent-up emotion of the day was unleashed. The children had handmade each ornament in preparation for a holiday they did not understand and had never celebrated. I blubbered away in the beauty and love of the moment. Again in that Chinese classroom I heard His sweet whisper, “Dear child, I am Immanuel. I am with you.”

Are you lonely this holiday season?

Listen. Immanuel is whispering, “You are not alone. I am with you wherever you go.”