Emmanuel - God with Us

Hope.  Emmanuel, God with us, brings us hope. 

On Sunday, Pastor Joel spoke about the reason Christ came to earth - to be Emmanuel, God with us.  In his birth, he came to earth to walk among humanity, to bring hope and love, to be close to us.

He came to bring redemption.

After service, I got to thinking about Christmas. The birth of Christ brought God to earth, but it doesn't stop there.  Christ on earth was only a short 30-some years.  Christ in spirit is forever.  If Christ's death hadn't happened, there would be no point to Christmas.  It made me wonder how different our world would be if we celebrated Christ's death with as much vigour and intensity as we celebrate his birth.  Months before Christmas, we put up our trees, light up our houses, put out our nativity sets and go on a spending spree that could feed an entire third world country.  Why do we not celebrate Christ's death and resurrection in the same way?  Christ's death meant that in 2011, his spirit could still be God with us.  Why don't we put up our crosses and crowns of thorns?  Where is the tomb with the stone rolled away that we put out to remind us of Christ's sacrificial death for our redemption of sins?  The picture isn't nearly a "pretty" as a baby wrapped lovingly in strips of cloth and laying in a manger full of hay.  But the message of redemption is so much greater.  The birth, although a miracle and a loving gesture from a King who left his throne, is nothing without the next chapter.  It's Christ's death and resurrection that truly makes his coming worth celebrating.

I am praying that this Christmas I will be mindful of the redemptive reason that Christ came - to be Emmanuel, God with us, here, now, always.