A devotional by Pam Benedict

Nothing makes this mama’s heart happier than knowing that her kids are coming home and that we’re going to spend family time together. This is especially true around the holidays.

Several days before Thanksgiving, I washed sheets & blankets and made up the beds. We shopped & stocked the shelves and the refrigerator with fresh cider, snacks, and breakfast treats. Tuesday night everyone arrived, driving in from Pittsburg and Richmond and the kitchen was full of chatter and laughter.

On Thanksgiving Day, we hustled & bustled getting ready for extended family to come. My sister has been sick with long COVID since last September, so when she stepped through our front door that day, my eyes welled up with tears of thankfulness. Having her in my house, after a year and a half of her being too exhausted to travel, was such a blessing and answer to prayer!

For Christmas, we’re prepping in reverse order. Our daughter and son-in-law Amanda & Patrick are doing the washing & shopping and we’re doing the driving as we head down to Richmond a few days after Christmas day. There will be more hugging, feasting, and celebrating together. Our son Josh & daughter-in-law Alaina are on a three-year posting in Germany and Steve’s family is in Florida, so we’ll connect with them through zoom & Facetime (so thankful for that technology!)

No matter what the culture or country, people have a strong desire to be with the ones they love and will travel many hours by car, train, plane to make that happen.

What amazes me is that God feels the exact same about us! Throughout Scripture, He revealed Himself to individual people, personally connected with them, and invited them to spend time with Him.

• God the Mighty Creator walked and talked with Adam & Eve in the cool of the day.
• The Everlasting God called Abraham his friend, spoke face to face with Moses, and quieted David’s heart with psalms in the night.
• His presence went with the Israelites in the wilderness as a cloud by day and fire by night.
• He gave Solomon detailed instructions for a temple to be built so that His presence would be WITH his people.

What other god does this? In other religions, the gods are capricious, demanding, and impossible to please. They’re far away, demand a sacrifice and have no desire for the people to come near. But our LORD, our Yahweh, PLANNED from time eternal to be WITH His people and to lavish His love and His grace and His riches on them.

In Matthew 1 an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and said,

“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord has said through the prophet (Isaiah 7:14); “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him, Immanuel which means, ‘God with us.”

Christmas is not just the celebration of the miraculous birth of Jesus, but also a partial fulfillment of God’s prophecies and a down payment on God’s plan to be WITH us forever. For millennia, Israel looked for the promised Messiah to be revealed. And that was fulfilled when Jesus “moved into their neighborhood” (John 1:14 MSG). As Pastor Isaac shared last Sunday, Jesus was perfect man & perfect deity, God veiled in human flesh. But the culmination, the grand finale, and the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promises are yet in the future. In Revelation 21…

“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. He will wipe every tear from their eyes.”

In the hubbub of these last few days before Christmas, it’s easy to feel disconnected from the God who is WITH us.  There are rooms to clean, food to cook, presents to wrap. We must be intentional if we’re to stay centered and aware of Immanuel, God with us.

At Christmas time, Steve & I have a little Christmas ritual that we do every year before Christmas Day.  One evening, after the house is quiet and everyone’s in bed, we sneak down to the living room, turn off all the room lights and sit together on the couch and talk by the light of the Christmas tree.  It’s a great opportunity to reflect on God’s faithfulness and acknowledge the many ways he’s been with us throughout the year and our life.  Many times, we point out special ornaments that remind us of special times or the loved ones in our life. It’s our special way of inviting Emmanuel back into our Christmas.

What might you do to invite the Presence of God back into your Christmas?

Whatever intentional practice you chose, remember that God wants to spend time with you.  You are not a bother to Him. He wants to be with you. He could have chosen any name for Jesus, but He chose, “Emmanuel, our God is WITH us.”