Immanuel - What's In A Name?

I love all the names of God in the Bible.

Yahwah, my God, Yeshua, my Savior. Jehovah Jirah, my Provider. Jehovah Rapha, my Healer.

During this Christmas Season, however, it is the name Immanuel that I most often think of.
The prophet Isaiah tells us this, "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14

What is in this name? What does it mean?

"Behold, the Virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name IMMANUEL," which translated means, " God With Us." Matthew 1:23

God with us. Do we truly grasp the meaning of this seemingly simple phrase? God with us.

No, we don't grasp it and we won't completely grasp it in this life. My feeble attempt to write about it is simply that - feeble. And truly not even mine. I actually heard a beautiful sermon by Dr. David Jeremiah that started me thinking about it more. Since then, it has been on my mind almost constantly, which tells me I need to write about it.

God with us. What are the implications of that for us, today, in our world? I think that to truly even begin to grasp that we have to go back a couple thousand years to that night. Yes, that night. Obviously, we don't know exactly when it happened. Most probably it was not on December 25th. The important part, though, is that it did happen.

God, wrapped Himself in flesh. He embedded Himself in the womb of a teenage girl. In the innermost parts, he became a vulnerable beating heart - a fetus. He developed there, like every other baby, he floated in the warm fluid-filled womb, slowly growing organs, tiny fingers and toes, and maybe soft, dark hair.

Then, He came forth from the womb. The same way babies have come forth for thousands of years since the fall. In pain, with blood and tears, Mary brought this baby into the world. However, his birth place was not a palace, as it should have been. It was not a soft, feather filled mattress where He laid His little head that night - as He deserved. No, it was a cave turned stable. Have we truly meditated on what that means? Have you ever been in a barn? There are strange people, like me, who actually like the smell of a barn, a clean barn. I love the smell of hay and horses. Mind you, though, I like the smell of a barn that houses a few sleek riding horses, with plenty of clean hay and leather tack and stalls that someone (not me) mucks out on a daily basis. This was not where baby Jesus laid His head. He laid His head in a dank, moldy cave. Likely it was the type of cave that shepherds herded their sheep into on dark, cold nights. We don't know what types of animals were there, if any, or if on the hard dirt floor were just the waste products of the sheep that had been there before. Whatever was there, there was no leather tack, no fresh hay, and I'm quite sure that no mucking had been going on. The King of Kings, Immanuel, was born in filth. He was wrapped in rags and slept in a feeding trough. His earthly father was a carpenter. A carpenter who had been traveling for days on dusty roads, leading a donkey, sleeping on the ground, and not taking a bath. Mary and Joseph were travel weary and covered in grime. In all the pictures we see of the nativity, there is Mary in her clean tunic and Joseph gazing down at her with staff in hand. I don't believe this is quite accurate. They were wrinkled, filthy, and it smelled in there. There was the lingering odor of animal waste, mold, and body odor.

God with us.

He was willing to leave the very throne of Heaven for this. For dirt, mildew, animal waste, and filthy rags. He was willing to leave it all - for me. For you.

We don't like to think about this part. Somehow, it seems wrong, not reverent, to think of God in these conditions. Dr. Jeremiah pointed out in the sermon I referred to earlier, that it is easier for us to keep God up in Heaven, Holy and seated on His throne. It seems more "religious" that way. He seems more removed.

He is on His throne, make no mistake. None of this takes away from His Holiness. He is Holy, Perfect, and Just. But, He is also here. God with us.

That is the very miracle of it all. God chose to become like us - yet remain perfect, as He must be. He chose to enter into the filth and muck of our world, to live "in" it, yet never "of" it. What does that night so long ago, mean for us today? It means, He is still here. He will not leave you because of the dirt and grime in your life. Just as He willingly laid His perfect, Holy head in a manger, now He will enter in to whatever is going on with you. Where ever you are, He will meet you there. You don't have to do anything in order to come to Him. He loves you right where you are.

God with us.

"For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;And the government will rest on His shoulders;And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,Eternal Father, Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6