Inhabiting Immanuel

Christmas is almost here.

This time of year is my favorite. It’s not quite the same here in France as it was back in Minnesota in the USA. For one, there’s no snow. It doesn’t get so cold. Family’s not around. So Christmastime is a different experience than it used to be.

But it’s still worth thinking about and reflecting on what Christmas means.

The Bible tells us that the Christ child would be called Immanuel, translated as “God with us.”

Take a moment and think about that.

Now, my faith has grown in a different direction from how it was in my fundamentalist upbringing. I find myself focusing less on literal miracles and questions of sin and salvation than I used to. My faith is now expressed in the concrete here and now most of the time.

This comes with its own difficulties that are different than the ones that came from my fundamentalist, sin-focused background.

And so, as Christmas comes, I want to try to remind myself of this incredible truth:

God has come to live among us.

This is the thing we celebrate at Christmas. God came into humanity, taking the form of a child. This child was born in humble circumstances. He didn’t come as a king, like the Creator of the Universe deserved. Instead, he was born to an unwed migrant in a farmyard.

Perhaps this Christmas story reveals something about the things that God cares about. Maybe it tells us something about where to look for God in our daily lives.

I must confess, I often get so caught up in the struggles of each day that I forget to think whether God might already be present with me, where I am.

God came down to earth and lived a life of deprivation and hunger. His family became refugees to Egypt. He grew up and took up his family trade. His story mirrors the ones I’ve heard hundreds of times in my work here. He knows what it’s like to accept hospitality. He knows how it feels to be innocently accused of violence.

As Christmas approaches, let’s take some time to make central this miracle to our lives. Let’s search for the very real ways in which God With Us inhabits the people on the margins: The homeless, the poor, the refugee.

He knows their stories, for he has lived them.

What if we can learn what it means to know God With Us if we look for the places his story took him?