"The Greatest Christmas Gift Of All"

Posted by Ann Marie Rush

Before I begin, I would like to say, that the implications of the name "Immanuel" are both comforting & unsettling. Comforting because He has come to share the danger as well as the drudgery of our everyday lives.
For He desires to weep with us & to wipe away our tears. And what seems most bizarre, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, longs to share in & to be the source of the laughter & the joy we all too rarely know.
And yet, the implications are unsettling. For it is one thing to claim that God looks down upon us from a safe distance & speaks to us [via long distance, we hope]. But to say that He is right here, is to put ourselves & Him in a totally new situation. For He is no longer the calm & benevolent observer in the sky, the kindly old caricature with the beard. His image becomes that of Jesus, who wept & laughed, who fasted & feasted, & who above all, was fully present to those He loved. For He was there with them. And He is here with us. ...

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