Occasionally, on a warm breeze, clear sky evening when my schedule’s empty, I enjoy reclining on my deck and gazing upward.
Looking up thrusts me into the endless darkness and countless twinkling stars. I instantly feel insufficient and inconsequential in the universe’s enormity. I’m nothing in the scope of God’s creation.
At least that’s how the night sky…and life…often make me feel.
Fortunately, God doesn’t feel that way about me. And one word—one of the names given to His Son—proves it.
The Old Testament prophet Isaiah tells us:
“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a Son, and shall name Him Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14)
Matthew 1:23
Immanuel. The name of Jesus that lets me know that God doesn’t feel that I’m nothing. That, to Him, I’m so much more.
In his Gospel, Saint Matthew reveals what that name means. “God is with us.”
God isn’t some distant ruler who lives galaxies away. We aren’t just random cosmic dust that takes up space in His universe.
He came down, in the Person of His Son, and dwelt with us. He did that for us because He loves us.
JESUS WAS WITH US
Have you ever felt alone? Abandoned? Like you’re the only one who has your relationship issue, your addiction, your empty bank account?
I have, and it sucks.
In high school, I didn’t fit in. I wasn’t a cool kid. I wasn’t good at any sports. My hair looked weird. I was picked on.
And I didn’t have any friends to whom I could turn.
Fortunately, Jesus gets me. He gets me because He was like me.
Paul explains that, in Jesus, “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:14)
Not only did Jesus come to live with us, but He was also tested just like us!
Satan tested Him in the desert. (see Matthew 4:1-11)
Pilate tested Him by tempting Him to lie about His identity as God’s Son. (see Mark 15:1-5)
Almost daily, He was tested by the unbelief of those around Him, including His friends. (see Matthew 14:28-31)
And He was most severely tested when He had to succumb to ridicule and torture and crucifixion at the hands of people He created! (see Matthew 27:27-37)
Jesus, the most powerful Man ever to walk the Earth, could have easily overpowered His captors. Instead, He let them do to Him as they pleased. He turned His other cheek toward their outstretched fist.
Can you imagine willingly allowing the world’s biggest bullies to do their worst to you?
One time, when I was walking down my high school hallway, a group of boys started making fun of me. I don’t remember what they said or why they said it, but I will never forget how their taunts made me feel.
Instead of walking away or laughing it off, I got mad. I got angry. And not just run-of-the-mill angry…I’m talking cartoon-villain-turning-tomato-red angry.
I turned to the boy closest to me, grabbed him by the front of his shirt, and threw him up against the cinder block wall. I held him there for what felt like ten minutes—and was probably only one—and wordlessly seethed.
I wanted to do more to him than just hold him there, but my fear that a teacher may be lurking around the corner stopped me. I thank God it did, because if we weren’t at school, I’m not sure what I would’ve done.
Pontius Pilate’s posse and Caiaphas’s compadres did way more than tease Jesus. And Jesus did way less than me to protest.
JESUS IS STILL WITH US
Jesus didn’t just come to Earth in bodily form to live with us two thousand years ago.
He still lives with us today.
As Jesus told His apostles:
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him, because He abides with you, and He will be in you.” (John 14:16-18)
In the person of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, Jesus lives in us forever. And the Spirit is who allows us to truly see Jesus with us.
“In their joint mission, the Son and the Holy Spirit are distinct but inseparable. To be sure, it is Christ who is seen, the visible image of the invisible God, but it is the Spirit who reveals Him.” (CCC 689)
Jesus also listens to us. We can pray to Him whenever we want, and He will hear us.
“In his teaching, Jesus teaches His disciples to pray with a purified heart, with lively and persevering faith, with filial boldness. He calls them to vigilance and invites them to present their petitions to God in His Name. Jesus Christ Himself answers prayers addressed to Him.” (CCC 2621)
After Jesus hears our prayers to Him, He answers them! We don’t pray in vain. We don’t pray to a God who ignores us. We pray to a God who acts!
JESUS WANTS US TO LIVE WITH HIM
Not only has Jesus come to live with us, but He also wants us to live with Him…forever.
“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:3)
Jesus came to us so we would know Him. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to continue to live with us and guide us toward our eternal destination. And He has prepared a place for us in Heaven so we can live with Him.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
No matter how alone we are, no matter how minuscule we feel in the vast universe, Jesus is with us. He loves us.
He hasn’t abandoned us. He never will.
God is with us.
Today and always, He is Immanuel.
Image: Photo by Gift Habeshaw on Unsplash