Advent Post 2023: God With Us

One of the things I'm thinking about this Advent season is how God is full of surprises, and the Christmas story shows this as much as anything.  It's a such a familiar story that we forget the shock of it, but imagine seeing any of these things in the headlines, and not of the National Enquirer:

A virgin becomes pregnant with the Son of God.  Shepherds are visited in the middle of the night by a huge choir of singing angels.  Several kings follow a giant moving star to meet a baby in a farm stall.  It's crazy!  But the biggest surprise of all is how God, who created the universe with His word, entered into humanity to be with us.  This blog is some thoughts about how much we need the "with us", and what a gift it is to have God with us.  

Since we're in the holiday season, I'll start there:  when I think of favorite Christmas memories, the main thing that stands out is who I was with.  The food, the decorations, the music, and the gifts are all great and contribute to the atmosphere of abundance and celebration (and shout out to all the hosts who, over the years, have worked round the clock to make Christmas so special) - but what really makes the holiday is celebrating with those you love.  

Beyond the holidays - every day life is made better when you have someone who understands, even in part, what things are like for you.  With siblings, you understand together the unique dynamics of your family (and as we all learn, these dynamics don't end when you grow up and move out of the house!).  With a spouse, you build a shared history and life as you age together, experience the joys and challenges of parenting children, and make all kinds of decisions about all kinds of things.  With friends, you choose people who have a similar understanding of the things that seem most important to you.  In a workplace or church or community group, you understand the ups and downs of working towards a goal together with this particular group of people on this particular project.  In all of the examples listed above, things sometimes get trickier and more conflict laden because other people are involved, and not all of these people will be lifelong companions - but ultimately life is richer and better for the people who stick with us through the long haul. 

And hard times?  This is the best time of all to have someone walking beside you.  When you or a loved one gets a devastating health diagnosis; when you or someone you love is struggling with something that can't be easily "fixed"; when you've been treated horribly; when finances feel impossible.  These are the times when it feels the most needful to have someone alongside you.  

The problem is, we don't always have someone with us through the good, the ordinary, or the bad.  We don't always feel understood.  We don't always have the "with you" that we are built for, long for, need.  

This longing for "with us" is one of the things that makes Christmas so beautiful:   in the Incarnation, the God of the universe comes down to be with us.  He joins us in the ups and downs of life, so we can know that He understands exactly what it's like that we go through.  Here is my favorite quote describing that:

 "The incarnation means that for whatever reason God chose to let us fall into a condition of being limited, to suffer, to be subject to sorrows and death - he has nonetheless had the honesty and the courage to take his own medicine...He himself has gone through the whole of human experience - from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair, and death...He was born in poverty and suffered infinite pain - all for us - and thought it well worth his while."  - Dorothy Sayers

We never have to feel alone in any part of the human experience, never have to feel that no one understands us, because God understands what we go through.  And while we are in the Already Not Yet  time of waiting for Christ's return, we can take great comfort that God is with us.  Merry Christmas to all of you, and I pray that everyone reading this feels the sweet companionship and love of God with us.