Celebrating Emmanuel God With Us

In the secular world Christmas has come and gone, but in church we are still celebrating Christmas until Epiphany on January 6th. 

I love my church’s Christmas Eve service, but I’ve been struggling with going to church for the past few years. We used to all go as a family, but then my in-laws stopped visiting us for Christmas, and then my Dad passed away, and then my kids decided that they didn’t want to go church any more, even on Christmas Eve. My husband will always go with me, and my Mom, but it’s hard to sit among all the families without all of my family there. 

So, this Christmas Eve, I was feeling ambivalent about going to church, when I got this text message from my Mom.

With that simple message, I knew that I would go to church, whether my son would join us or not (he didn’t). With that simple message, I knew that going to church was more important than wallowing in my nearly-empty-nest sadness. With that simple message, I knew that I would not be alone joyfully singing Christmas hymns while wishing my kids were there with me. 

During Advent, we’ve been singing Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel as our opening hymn.

Emmanuel means “God with us,” and that is the meaning of Christmas that has meant the most to me this year.

For God so loved the world, that He became born as one of us. He entered in to our messy, chaotic, ugly, beautiful lives, and lived among us. Through the Holy Spirit, He walks with us today. He offers to come with us on our most difficult journeys, to hold our hands through our hardest times, to share in our delight at blessings big and small. We are not alone. God is with us. 

Merry Christmas!