Immanuel

At this time every year I listen to my favourite Christmas songs.

Christmas carols and songs are packed full of deep truths…gospel truths…and I find they speak deeply to my soul. I love the way songwriters can beautifully capture truth in a few words.

One of my favourites is Michael Card’s Immanuel. It’s an old song….from the 1980s I think…but I never grow tired of hearing it.

Take this line….

A human baby bearing undiminished deity

Six words that speak right to the heart of the Christmas gospel.

Jesus…fully human…yet fully God.

Don’t try and get your head around it…you won’t!

And then the chorus unpacks this truth further…

Immanuel, Our God is with us.

Jesus. The baby in the manger.

Immanuel. God with skin on. God with flesh. God come close.

God with us.

The eternal, creating Triune God…steps down…humbles himself…allows himself to be born as a baby.

And then hear the next line…

And if God is with us, then who can stand against us

Pause and take that in.

Immanuel…God with us…the King has come.

And if the King has come…who can oppose?

It’s a little bit like a child who awakes in the night, scared. Their parent comes. And they are comforted. Reassured. What can harm them now? The one they trust is there.

That’s the gospel. The good news.

Jesus comes to the humanity He created…He loves. He arrives to a dark place. He arrives to a place ruled by sin and death…to a people living in fear. And He arrives so that He can do something about it.

We know how the story goes.

But for now, revel in…marvel in…delight in…the incarnation….Immanuel…God with us.

Allow your heart to soak it in, and soak in it.

And as Michael Card sings, once again allow yourself to embrace His warm reality.