Thursday, December 10, 2009

Immanuel

The Bible offers so many lenses through which we view our brokenness and God's recreation in Jesus: we are guilty, God makes innocent; we are ashamed, God honors; we are enslaved, God frees.

Christmas invites us to put on yet another lens by which to marvel. Part of what it means to be human is to yearn for a connection with God. We feel lonely, isolated, despairing that we dwell in an empty cosmos or worse - an angry one whose Creator frowns on us.

Into this solitude a baby is announced: "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel (which means, God with us)".

In the incarnation God casts his lot with humanity. The "where are you?" of alienation at the fall becomes the "God with us" of solidarity in Immanuel's birth.