God With Us

" 'Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,' which translated means, 'God with us,' "  (Matthew 1:23, NASB)

This verse never ceases to amaze me.  When I read the Scriptures, it is amazing to me that God would be with me at all.  In fact, there are myriads of reasons why God should not be with me.  Sin is introduced in Genesis chapter 3 and separates mankind from God.  When I was born, I was born in sin and was separated from God who made me, and yet here God promises to humble people that Mary will have a child and they will call Him "God with us".  God himself came to be human.  God the Son left heaven above and the glories of the throne-room of God the Father in order to be born as a fragile infant child in a much smaller space than He was used to, in a bed of hay, needing to be fed, cared for and nurtured into a good young Jewish boy.  This was God with us.  No fanfare, no trumpets heralding to the world that He had come.  The heralds went instead to a field where Shepherds were watching their flocks.  And yet this baby, born in humble circumstances, would be the solution to the separation that mankind had from God.  He was God with us.

This singular statement is something that separates Christianity from many of the other world religions who believe that God is so "otherly" that their deity is above mankind to the extent that there is gulf fixed between them that cannot be breached.  And while we as Christians contend that there is a gulf fixed between us and God, it is one that has already been breached by the Son of God and that is bridged by His shed blood.  What a glorious truth to recall at Christmas.  The baby came and was born to die so that you and I could have life.  He is God with us who enables us to be with God.  This is the truth of Hebrews 10:19-22.  We have access to God and can be with God because God was first with us.  God with us. 

The statement also gives us something to look forward to.  We not only have God with us, not only can we be with God, but we will be with God in a tangible way that involves the removal of the presence of sin and the glorious eternity of heaven on earth with Christ as Ruler over all that is.  This promise of a new heaven and a new earth inaugurates a new era where all is restored and even made better than what it was at creation.  A time when the dwelling of God is with me and "He will dwell among them and they shall be His people. . ." (Revelation 21:3, NASB)  God with us in an ultimate way that will never change - a time with no more tears, no more death, no more mourning, no more crying, no more pain.   God with us. 

And all of this made possible because of God's movement toward us in the form of a little baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a feeding trough.  What a glorious paradox - the restorer of humanity came as humanity to demonstrate that our frailty can be overcome.  Praise be to God.  God with us.