To understand God With Us

Christmas has always been one of my favorite times of the year, but not for the bases of what it represents, rather for what the season brings (aside from massive obsession with consumerism, greed and ruining ones credit). It is a season that brings people together, it is the time where my family always gets together. But what does this season really represent? Although it is widely accepted that Jesus was born in the Spring, this is a celebration of his birth, the coming of Emmanuel; but in Christmas, what is really meant by his birth?

Israel was a name given to Jacob after his wrestling with an angel of God. Israel, roughly meaning struggles or wrestles with God, is the story of the Hebrew nation, the constant falling away and coming back to God. His chosen people consistently struggled with God and the world, going in and out of captivity by one nation to another. What would it have been like to struggle with God in the way the Hebrews did? Promised a savior, a Messiah to rescue them from bondage and struggle, what would it be like to pray for a savior to come and rescue?

Then Jesus is born, the savior, the answered prayer. What would it be like to hear of a savior, one born in a barn and fleeing Herod's wrath. The King born into a child. How would I react? What would I feel? What would it be like to experience the birth of a savior that we had been praying for? To see and worship Emmanuel, even as a babe? When I listen to Advent music and think about the meaning behind the lyrics I wonder how it would be to experience the actual birth of the savior my people have been praying for for centuries.

I know Christ, His love is within me and I have known my savior for years, but in the mix of the holiday season, and the pressure society places on people corrupting the true meaning of Christmas, I want to go back to the root of the holiday, the meaning of the birth of the savior, to experience the birth of God With Us.