Emmanuel You’re One of Us

By Rend Collective

I know Emmanuel, you’re one of us. You left your throne to wear our scars. Though Christmas lights may lose their spark, and winter’s cold may break our hearts, oh Christmas means, Emmanuel you’re one of us.

I was feeling kind of blue last week thinking about Christmas. I can’t get together with friends and family like normal. Santa Claus is in quarantine before his big gig on the 24^th, so he can’t come see my kiddos at work this year. Christmas caroling with the church fam got cancelled, and we are not having our usual Indoor Christmas Eve Candlelight Service this year. On the bright side, the Lord has blessed me with a loving family and a warm home. I have everything I need and more, and I have no reason to complain. So, why then, did I still feel all “meh” about Christmas?

It was because I had temporarily lost sight of what Christmas is all about. Christmas is not a feeling, and Christmas most certainly is not about us. It is about celebrating the birth of God incarnate and honoring our Savior. Jesus stepped down from his heavenly throne to dwell among us. He became one of us, a human.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the name “Emmanuel” this week. We are told in Matthew 1:23 that Emmanuel means, “God with us.” How awesome is it that the almighty, all-powerful God of the universe, creator of all things, wants to be with us and that he wants us to be with him!

We are a sinful, unreliable, and disappointing people. If you were God, would you want to become one of us?  We are not good enough to be in the presence of God. But because God loves us so much and wants us to be with him, he gave us the greatest gift of all—his one and only Son, Jesus Christ (John 3:16). It is through Jesus, and only Jesus, by his sacrifice on the cross, can our sins be atoned for and we can enter heaven and spend eternity with God.

That is why we celebrate Christmas. We don’t celebrate it to make us feel good. We celebrate Christmas to honor God and to thank him for giving us the ultimate gift of salvation.

2020 has brought its share of hardships. But through it all, Emmanuel has been with us. “Emmanuel You’re One of Us” reminds us of this. Emmanuel shares with us in the ups and downs of life, and he knows what it means to suffer.

As we celebrate Christmas, let us thank God for his gift of salvation and allowing Emmanuel in our lives. Let us also be sure to show his love to others. We have all dealt with the adversities of 2020 in different ways, and we could all benefit from being shown a little bit of heaven this year.

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

Matthew 1:23

Click here to listen to “Emmanuel You’re One of Us” by Rend Collective.