"Emmanuel: Glimpses of God Incarnate," December 4

Saturday, December 4

Matthew 1:22-23

“God is Present”

ADVENT AT OUR HOUSE, like many others, means an Advent Calendar to help us count down the days until Christmas. Ours has tiny wooden doors for each day of the Advent season, and behind each one is a piece of a miniature nativity set which our children build over the course of the season. (Don’t worry, there’s a piece of candy behind each door, too!) When our oldest was two, she joyed in opening the tiny doors each morning as soon as she woke up, equally as enamored by the miniature shepherd, sheep, or camel as she was by the M&M she would surely find. As Christmas approached, even with our focus on Jesus’s birth as the true story of Christmas, her toddler excitement about Santa Claus could not be denied. Cam and I, being a clergy couple, felt a bit disappointed in ourselves that she wasn’t more excited about the impending birth of our Savior than about Jolly Old Saint Nicholas.

Finally, Christmas morning arrived, gifts from family were piled in the living room, and the Advent Calendar sat in the corner with one last, tiny door to open. Zanna awoke before anyone else. We woke to Zanna’s high-pitched squeal and then heard her exclaim, “It’s JESUS! God’s here!” She ignored all of the gifts that littered the living room floor and ran to find us, holding the baby in the manger, saying “It’s true. It’s true. It’s Jesus. God’s here!”

Her delight in the gift of Emmanuel reminds me that God comes to us in the person of Jesus bringing joy, new life, and mercy. We understand the gift of Emmanuel anew every season of our lives, unpacking what it means for Jesus to truly be Word made flesh, God here with us. As we hear once again the story of Jesus’s birth, may we, too, shout with delight, “It’s true! It’s true! It’s Jesus. God is here!”

Emmanuel; God indeed is with us, today, tomorrow, and forever.

– Rev. Dr. Sarah Allen (MDiv’07, DMin’19), Director-elect of Ministerial Formation and Advanced Studies