God with us

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,and they shall call his name Immanuel, God with us. ”Matthew 1:23

We all have a part in the pageant. Kings and stars, shepherds and Angels, a different May and Joseph in every place. Today we all find a way to tell the story and to live the story. Some of us will preach and some of us will sing. Some will cook and decorate and others will travel to strange and familiar places. Some of us will be reluctant, others angry and frustrated and yet some of us will be bursting with enthusiasm. Some of us will cry and some will laugh. And many of us will be all these things before the day is through. The God with us, Immanuel event is not a perfect experience but a human experience. God in the midst of our traffic jams, failed puddings and our cranky relatives. God is in the forgotten presents, in our poverty and our anxiety. God is with us whether we want God or not. Here we are together with Immanuel.

I pray that today might be a day when we all live in the present, knowing Christ has gone before us and is with us even today. May we focus not on the failure or the in-completions on our lists, but on the abiding truth that God loves us each so much that a God-Child came for all of us. Came for all of us barren and fruitful alike. Cranky and Joyful alike. The angry and the sad, the truly annoying and almost completely wonderful of us all. God came to our humility that we might all know love without bounds, forgiveness in every moment and restoration for every broken heart.
Merry Christmas! Christ is born for all!