JESUS! (whisper) I know Him

Photo by Burkay Canatar from Pexels

I love Christmas! The music, the gifts, the joy, the decorations, the cookies, and yes even the ugly sweaters which I have one for every day of the week! The reason I love Christmas above all the hustle and bustle of the holiday season is God became flesh and dwelt among us. This was something new, something the world had never seen before!   

After 400 years He broke the of silence and restored His presence among His people. We see God doing this throughout the Hebrew Bible where God dwells among His people in special, intimate, and personal ways. In the beginning He would walk in the garden during the cool of the day with Adam and Eve (Gen 3). God met Moses in a burning bush and on Mt Sinai (Ex 3 & 19). God led the Israelites through the desert with a pillar of smoke by day and pillar of fire by night (Ex 13). God filled the Holy of Holies with His presence and His Glory in the Tabernacle and in the Temple (Nu 7 & 2 Chro 7). God reveals in the Old Testament time and again His desire to be with His people in real ways, but never had He done something like this!  

Jesus is Immanuel, God with us.   

Jesus is the culmination of everything Moses and the prophets wrote about. He is the summation of the Law. He is the Wonderful Counselor, Lord of Life, Lord of All, the Prince of Peace, Mighty God, Holy One, Immanuel! (Isa 9) Cue Amy Grant and some heavy synth from 1992! The point, before I break out in chorus, is that God has and always will make a way to be in relationship with His people to the point of taking off the trappings of His Glory and clothing Himself in humility to walk among us, to heal us, to forgive us, to correct us, and to bless us.   

Christmas is a time where I am consistently overcome and overjoyed by the Good News that Christ has come and made His home among us. Christmas reminds me that someday Christ will come again because God has been faithful to find ways to dwell among His people from bushes to temples. So, despite how upside down and scary the world around us can be…in God’s grace Jesus knows this first hand (Luke 1) and one day He will return to walk with us because God is with us. Immanuel. 

-Ryan Saenz, General Manager, Black Diamond Camp