Immanuel, God is With Us

by Rev. Dana Seiler

We are two weeks into our Advent season. For the most part, these past couple weeks of Advent have been filled with joy, celebration and rejoicing. Typically that is what this whole season is about. Advent is a season of lights, holiday cheer, cookies, cakes and pie, and of course egg nog.

In fact, we gorge ourselves on so many cookies, cakes, and pie that come New Year's day we all take a vow to diet and go to the gym for the whole next year.

This is what we do during this Advent season. We eat, we drink, and while we fill ourselves full with the merriment of this season, we forget that for a lot of people this isn’t the most joyous season of all. In fact, for a lot of people it can feel like quite the opposite. It can feel like the loneliest season of all.

This time of year can be extremely difficult for people who are grieving the loss of a loved one. For many, this will be the first year where someone will be missing from the holiday meal and gift exchange.

This can be a difficult season for those who have strained relationships with family members. The last thing they want to do is gather together for the holidays under one roof where there is conflict and tension, and more strife can occur.

This time of year can feel like a joy-less season for those who are spending their Christmas in a hospital room or awaiting medical results and a prognosis. This is a difficult time of year for the families who have a child in the cancer unit at the hospital. It’s also a difficult season for those who don’t have enough money to purchase a gift for their son or daughter. For all of these people, and all of these various scenarios, this time of year doesn’t necessarily feel like the most joyous season of all, nor does it feel like a time to be celebrating.

While this season may not be the most wonderful time of the year for some, and even though it may hold moments that can feel quite lonely, it also contains a message of hope and comfort, as well.

We find our hope and comfort in knowing that our Savior was born. That God, in Christ, became one of us. That that no matter what we face in life we are never alone because God is always with us. That is the good news of this season, and that is the good news of Christ’s birth.

Life can be messy. Life can be painful. Life often times doesn’t go as planned, but through it all the silver lining is that God is present. The silver lining is that God is with us. That is the silver-lining that helps to temper the grief, the pain, the loneliness, and the heartache that can creep in from time to time.

At Christmas time, it can be hard to admit the struggles we face, the loneliness we may be feeling, the hopes we had that never came to fruition. It’s hard to name those things because we are so inundated with jingle bells and Hallmark romance movies. We’re expected to be generous and to be joyful, and to be joyfully generous.

Yet, for each of us there are things we grieve, people we miss, familial relationships we wish were stronger or healthier, or dreams that have come and passed. Just because it is the Christmas season those struggles don’t just magically go away, but buried beneath them all, buried beneath those heartaches is our Christmas message.

A message of comfort and hope. A message that we are not alone in those struggles.The message of Christmas is that God in Christ became incarnate. He became one of us. He became one of us with flesh and blood. He became one of us and walked this earth. Therefore, He knows our pains, He knows our struggles, and He is with us in those difficult times.

The message of Christmas reassures us that no matter what we come up against in life, God is by our side to comfort us. For to us a Savior was born, Immanuel (which means “God with us”).