Immanuel

“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means ‘God with us’).” Matthew 1:23

Some people have asked me over the years what the most impressive doctrine of the bible is. I’ve heard many other people give me their version of that as well. To my astonishment, almost never did I say, “God with us” or heard it said. It was always something about God’s love, or His “truth”, like what day to worship, how He created the world or how He died to give us life.

I can now say beyond a shadow of a doubt that the incarnation is the most impressive and dare I say important doctrine of the bible. See, over the past five and a half years, I’ve had the privilege of becoming a father three times. I’ve been overjoyed with the fact that my wife and I were able to create three little beings in our likeness. But mostly, impressed with how they are utterly helpless, utterly depended upon us for their survival. If our babies didn’t have mommy’s tender care, her milk, our caring arms to change them, keep them warm, they would literally not make it past a few days or weeks.

Now picture this, the king of the universe, the one whom the bible says spoke everything into existence (John 1:3) became a tiny baby. Of course that in this age of post-modernity, of scientific knowledge and rationalism, this belief is an utter joke. However, for those of us who can still see the supernatural and still believe that it’s possible that God can empty himself completely (Phil. 2:7), this truth is remarkable.

God chose to leave us fallen humans, innocent and naive teenagers and young adults in charge of the most wonderful and most important person on this planet. Words fail to describe this incredible thing. I just sit here in awe, amidst beautiful lights, decorations, presents, food and treats.

I also see all around me true happiness. Whether or not you are a Christian and/or celebrate Christmas without Christ, I can say in no uncertain terms, you make the world a better place. You still believe in happiness, love, compassion, joy and peace, and those are all things that the tiny baby in Bethlehem represents. I enjoy seeing my social media channels flooded with pictures of happy children, families, bountiful meals and glistening decor. And I can say that were it not for this King, the world wouldn’t be a happier place even if only for 24 hours.

Sure, the Christmas story is not of happiness alone, for I struggle to understand how a nation and their king would feel so threatened by a baby that they would command the slaughter of children all around. I understand that most people did not want anything to do with a King who would be born in a feeding through, but that’s the beauty of the subversive kingdom.

Christ makes the logical things of this world illogical, and the crazy things are what His kingdom is all about. Earthly kings come with pomp, majesty and power; violence, conquest and death to enemies. The heavenly King came with humbleness, meekness and helplessness; freedom, peace and love to enemies.

That’s why to me, the most important and impressive Christian belief is Emmanuel, “God with us”. Do you agree?

Merry Christmas.

Artwork: “Adoration of the Shepherds” by Gerard van Honthorst, 1622