Notes on Hope Devotional

Immanuel, God with us

Matthew 1:23 NIV
“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

Today’s verse is the basis for our Christian faith. A miracle birth, humanly impossible: God putting on flesh to come to be with us. Jesus, fully God and fully man, lived, breathed, ate, slept, walked, and wept. He came to be like us and be with us.

At Christmas, we are invited to reorient our hearts, minds, and spirits to the birth of Jesus.

In the midst of all the chaos, calamities, the unseen, the unknown, our fragility, and our frailty of being human, God came to be with us.

My daughter has an Advent wreath on her dining room table that she designed a few years ago. Last week, she lit the candle of hope for the first week of Advent. Hope came to us in a manger.

It wasn’t what we expected. It didn’t look like how we thought it should. Hope comes in a different package, without a bow.

Hope forms in us as we keep trusting, believing, and connecting to the One they called, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace, and Immanuel.

God is with us now. 

In the mess we find ourselves, in the grief we sense, in the health scares we experience, in the unanswered questions we ask, in the unknown future we face. God is with us.

Let us find our rest and peace in Immanuel, God with us.

Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank You for coming to us in flesh and blood.
Thank You for knowing what it’s like to be human and not leaving us on our own.
Help us fully embrace the reality that You are, indeed, with us, Immanuel.
In Your Mighty Name,
Amen