Emmanuel – God With Us

I learnt the Christmas story as a child – Mary, Joseph, Bethlehem, manger, baby, shepherds, wise men…. read, sung, acted, each year at church… The angel says to Joseph: ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him ‘Emmanuel’, which means ‘God with us’’.

I was taught well. Isaiah’s prophecy… Jesus was God, come into the world, to be with us. Jesus was with us at church. Jesus could be with me.

I learnt that the church word to describe God becoming man was ‘incarnation’… Carnation was the evaporated milk we poured on our peaches… In Carnation… I imagined a baby having milk poured over him.

As I grew older I became a teacher, got married, had a family. My understanding deepened. Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, was born into a family; he could be present in our family. He blessed children – he said that they were special; he could be present in my classroom.

At Christmas we also heard: ‘The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us…’ one translation was: ‘The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighbourhood.’ God was present in my neighbourhood… the crowds doing their Christmas shopping, the parents at the school gates, the casual conversations in the café.

Last week we enjoyed our annual carol singing at our local theatre… candles, pantomime adverts, mince pies, mulled wine, beer, fun, laughter, churchgoers, friends who won’t go to church this Christmas. Jesus, Emmanuel, God was with us there…

Yesterday I went with a couple of friends to take a little carol service in the lounge of a residential home. Kind, cheerful staff welcomed us and joined in.

Elderly ladies, appearing to be asleep, sung ‘Away in a Manger’ and ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’ with their eyes closed. A couple of gents with dementia wandered around, vacantly involved. Our friend sat in the corner looking unwell.

I realised again with renewed freshness; Jesus, Emmanuel, was God there, in that home, with us.