If we are honest, most of us have a reference point if we are decorating, cooking, and shopping for Christmas. It’s usually others. Of course, I choose the colors, recipes, and gifts, but those choices are always set against the backdrop of folks I like and love. Because at Christmas I love company! I like sharing the lights, the music, the food, the gifts with those I am most fond of. As the years have passed, holidays have changed, often quieter and at times even lonely as extended family is scattered. Kids marry, friends, move away, etc. So when the company can come, I am all in.
Recently, we had family friends from here and Peru in our home for Thanksgiving. Having 3 young girls to share things like games, gingerbread houses, movies, and laughs were so fun. When everyone left, though we were tired, there was an emptiness and a sense of sadness resulting from our quiet house that had been filled with laughter and fellowship. Our family missed company. It was a joy for them all to be with us.
I think this was one of the hardest things about the pandemic. The lack of contact with friends loved ones, and even acquaintances due to isolation and social distancing took its toll on our hearts. We learned we had taken conversation and smiles and even hugs far too much for granted. I remember the first few visits with neighbors when some of the restrictions were lifted. We chatted like magpies. We almost spoke over the top of each other, and then there were those quiet moments where we just enjoyed basking in each other’s company. I look back at the time spent apart and review how much had changed in the interim. I grew a ponytail after having short hair for 30 years! I celebrated a milestone birthday in quarantine. Some of us put on weight while others took it off. My husband retired. We felt so out of touch during the separation that at times it produced an anxious overcast to life, and many days we longed for company.
It makes me think that maybe the Israelites experienced a little of this during the 400 years of silence of God before Christ came. I wonder what the landscape of daily life looked like to those who faced it. According to calculations, about 20 generations of folks were born, lived, worked, married, suffered, celebrated, and died without a word from the Lord. Not one visit to a prophet or a priest did God make. As I was composing this, I asked myself, Did God, out of love for His people, wait to create a deeper desire for His company.? Was He trying to develop a hunger and a thirst in them for a relationship with Him and His righteousness? The scriptures tell us in many places how much God treasures us. In Matthew 6, Jesus, Himself, tells us that we are far more valuable than sparrows. In Zephaniah 3, it states that God rejoices over us with singing. In James 4, scripture tells us to draw near to God, and He will draw near to us. God loves our company.
It makes me think of the day after the fall of man in the Garden when the guilty 2 hid themselves in the bushes. God already felt the separation, the fracture in their fellowship, and it broke His heart. Even then, it was His plan to bring His beloved creation back to Him. God wanted to enjoy their company and wanted them to enjoy His. Sin changed that. But God…..through Christ fulfilled the plan to save His people and bring us back together. When Jesus died for us and rose again of His own power, the quarantine from sin that separated us from the intimacy of God was over, and the invitation came to us all to come back home.
That is why Matthew 1:23 recounts the birth of Jesus like this..”So all this was done that it might be fulfilled that which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and they will call His name Immanuel; which is translated, God with us,” Christ came to be with us! The Holiness of God left the glory of heaven and came to earth in the flesh to keep company with sinners like me. God knew before I was born that I would miss Him and His company. So Jesus came to alleviate the loneliness my soul would have for God and His presence. Jesus came to be with us. The scripture tells us that there is a friend closer than a brother. This is Christ. When He left to return to heaven, His “withness with us” didn’t expire. It was personified by the Holy Spirit so that we would always have the company of God in this life.
What a comfort to my heart, soul, and mind to be reminded that God is with us. He is with us as we wait for the news in the Dr’s office or receive word about the job promotion. He is with us in our moments of victory and exhilaration and equally present in our hours of brokenheartedness and hopelessness when we think life can not turn around for us. Christ is present, smiling over the shoulders of doctors, as we make our way into this world, and He is at the bedside, beckoning us to take His hand as He leads us through the valley of the shadow of death and every minute between. I am not alone in my prayer closet, for He is with me, just as He is when my voice is lifted in praise to Him for all Christ is and has done for me. He is with me. He is my Savior, counselor, friend, advocate, and comfort; he is God with skin on it, all in. He came to me to be with me until the long separation is over until I get back home where I belong with He and the Father. The best company came at Christmas over 2000 years ago. We are not alone. He is with us.
This Christmas, may we cast off all that keeps us from enjoying the visitation of Christ and the Spirit. Take our failed expectations and disappointments and remind us that you only have good plans for us and that whatever troubles us can be transformed for our benefit. If we have closed the door to your presence because we are angry or frightened about the condition of the world and its treatment of us, help us open it wide to your perspective and show us how to let joy and peace back in. More than ever, Lord, this Christmas, we long for your presence and company. Thank you that you are Immanuel, God with us.
I hope you have enjoyed this series of the “I am” statements by Jesus and that you, like me, have experienced a Christmas refreshing to help you celebrate the birth of Christ.
May God bless us as we depend on Him and His word to bring us through to a New Year of Life according to His perfect will.
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