SCRIPTURE
MATTHEW 1:22-23

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:
"The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" (which means "God with us").

When our family moved house, we had to repeat the single most challenging building project of my entire life—our son's bed. This monstrosity had left me exhausted, sore, and frustrated when we first built it, and now we had to do it all over again. In spite of offers of help from our new church family, I was adamant we could do it ourselves. I was painfully, dangerously, embarrassingly wrong.

Human beings are built for community; we are built to be together.
In fact, the very first thing the Bible ever declares to be "not good" is being alone—trying to get through life by ourselves. We are built for relationship—both with other humans and with God. Yet, when the fall of humanity occurred in the garden of Eden, that perfect relationship with God was broken, almost irrevocably. Almost.

Jesus Christ is Immanuel--"God with us." He is God living in our flesh and walking in our shoes; he is God facing a badly broken world; He is God moving into our neighbourhood and making his dwelling amongst us. God in Christ is literally moving heaven and earth to restore that perfect, intimate relationship. His heart has never been distance but always intimacy; it has never been separation but always union.

We can see this purpose reaching its perfect fulfilment and completion in Revelation 21:3: "And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Look! God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God." And it's all the result of what we call the incarnation: God becoming flesh at Bethlehem; God becoming Immanuel.

Through this miracle of grace, the human family can once again know the joy of being in relationship with God; the joy of being his and knowing he is ours; the joy of having God with us, wherever we are and whatever we face. This is something prophets and priests and kings dreamed of and prophesied about for millennia. It's something our spiritual ancestors in the Old Testament longed for and pointed toward, and it's something that is perfectly fulfilled in Christ.

When we face the troubles and storms of life--and we will—we can know that Christ is Immanuel; he is with us. When we face difficult decisions and difficult people, he is with us. Joys are all the sweeter because he is Immanuel; sorrow can be endured because he is Immanuel. Loneliness is eased because he is with us; burdens can be borne because he is with us.

I's not about our good behaviour or our most strenuous efforts; it is simply because of who he is. God became Immanuel in his amazing grace and extravagant love; he remains with his people and for his people for exactly the same reason. It's not about how lovable we are; it's about the fact that he is love. Even when we don't deserve it and even when we haven't earned it, he remains Immanuel; he remains with us. He remains the most basic and foundational reality of life for the people of God.

And that is reason for joy.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION OR DISCUSSION

What does it mean to you that God became human for our sake?

Why do you think God allows the world to go on the way it is? Why not just fix everything now?

PRAYER

Write a prayer asking for the assurance of God's nearness when your ability to experience joy feels threatened.