God With Us

We thank you, O God! We give thanks because you are near. People everywhere tell of your wonderful deeds.

Psalm 75:1

The most astonishing promise of all is that God is near.

Jesus, Immanuel, “God with us.” I cannot grasp the fullness of it.

God the Son voluntarily left his rightful place on the universe’s throne, left the riches and the unimaginable glory that were his, left the sound of unending praise and worship that surrounded him—left it all to be with us.

What must that moment have been like? When heaven’s great Treasure shed his kingly grandeur and donned the clay of humanity, did the angels for a moment hold their breath and look on in astonishment? When he who was from the beginning took the form of a servant, did the eternal realm stand speechless with wonder? When the King of kings exchanged his majestic robes for swaddling clothes, surely it was one of the most beautiful, awe-inspiring moments in all eternity.

God with us. Can that little word with capture the meaning? Does it mean “with me,” like next to me? No, nearer than that. Does it mean “with me” like someone holding me in a tight embrace? No, nearer than that. “With me” like the blood in my veins? No, nearer still. “With me” like the beat of my heart? No, nearer, nearer.

“It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20, emphasis added). With me becomes in me. When God with us was born, he opened the way for heaven to invade earth and for earth to experience heaven. It was the first step in the grand, eternal plan that would make it possible for Jesus to be Christ in me.

Jesus, you are no faraway deity waiting for us to find you. You are God with us. May your Spirit so align my life with your willingness to embrace humility that this same willingness becomes the evidence of Christ in me.

He so loved us that He was created from a mother whom he had created, was carried in hands he had made, was nourished at breasts He had filled; that He, the Word without Whom all human eloquence is mute, wailed in a manger in mute infancy.

St. Augustine(354–430), Latin North African theologian and philosopher