Day 2: Home With Us
Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’
Matthew 2:23 (NLT)
When I think of Christmas, I think of home. Home is a place we all long for and sometimes cannot find. Home is elusive. Everyone knows where home is, but home is different for everyone; in fact, it changes depending on our life stage.
Throughout my life, home has been many places. It has been houses, townhomes, and apartments. I have been home in various towns, counties, and states. As I reflect on where I find Christmas, I find that the answer to “where” is found in “who.”
The reality is that I don’t connect much to places. For me, places are connected to people. The place that is home may change, but what makes those places home does not. The thread that unites all the places for me is the people who inhabit those spaces. Christmas for me is not where I am but who I am with – family, friends, those I love and who I know love me. Wherever they are is “home,” and that is the place I most want to be for Christmas.
I see this reality in the center of the Christmas story, in the miracle of Immanuel, God with us. Our longing for home is rooted in a much deeper longing for God, our true home. We are created to be with the Father. Yet try as we may, we cannot find our way home to the Father on our own. Sin and darkness block the way. And so, the God of the universe put on flesh and dwelt among us. In Jesus, God was and is with us. When we could not find our way home to him, Jesus came and made his home with us.
Day 5: Treasure With Us
But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. Luke 2:19 (ESV)hristmas tends to make me a little… grumpy. I don’t like endings and I abhor goodbyes. As an angsty teen, I began to sense frustration with the inescapable fact...
Day 4: Healing With Us
While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Luke 2:6-7 (NASB)he plan was to be home by...
Day 3: United With Us
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our...
Day 1: Present With Us
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory. John 1:14a (ESV)he cold night air frosted my breath as my chore boots crunched across the snowy farmyard. On my way toward the goat barn, I paused to look up at the crisp,...