It’s 10 a.m. on December 25th. Wrapping paper is strewn all around our living room and breakfast is in the oven. The phone rings and my mom answers. All of sudden our lives change; my mom just got news that my grandpa had passed away.
Fast forward 10 years. I am now 18 and don’t have very many memories of my grandpa or the days surrounding his death. What I do remember is the feeling of irony I felt as I realized that on the day when we should celebrating the birth of our Savior, would forever be the day we also mourn the death of a loved one. For me and so many others, Christmas holds a hint of sadness as we remember those that are no longer with us. For some, this was the first holiday they celebrated without their family member. For others, the absence of their loved one has become a Christmas tradition. But the one thing we all have in common is a new appreciation for those we do get to celebrate the holidays with.
Now that Christmas is over, I have to wait a year to celebrate it again, and I have to wait another year before I am confronted by the death of my grandpa. Or do I? That’s not really how Christmas works, though. We don’t mourn loss only one day of the year, and we don’t celebrate life for only one day either. We celebrate the birth of Christ year-round because it fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah which says that “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14 NIV). Immanuel is one of the lesser used names for Christ, but I think one of the most significant. Immanuel means “God with us” and ensures us that God did not forget his promise to the Jewish people. It is a promise that even when a family member leaves this earth, God will never leave us. A promise that even when a friend betrays you, God remains loyal. A promise that even when you feel alone; God is with you.
The moment Jesus Christ was born, the world changed. Not because sin suddenly ceased to exist or everyone now knew that Jesus was here, but because God had kept his promise. But, even though a child was born and given the name Immanuel, God had been with his people all along. At that moment in the stable, no one except Mary and Joseph knew that the Savior of the world had just been born. There was no giant celebration or end to world suffering, there was simply a crying baby in a manger. The significance of this baby was the fact that now instead of an invisible God being with us in our hearts, Mary and Joseph had the incarnate Christ with them in their arms. This is why we celebrate the birth of Christ. God gave us the gift of his presence in the form of a human, and 33 years later would allow this son to die. Some may think that Immanuel’s death means that God left us, but in reality, Jesus' death didn’t really change anything. God may have forsaken his son and turned his head away from our sin.
But He never left us.
God’s loyalty was only magnified when Jesus rose from the grave; He beat sin and death so that we could live together with Him in heaven. God has always been with us and will be with Christians for all of eternity.
For this reason, I don’t want to celebrate Christmas just on December 25th. Just as people daily mourn the death of their loved ones and wish they could be with us on this earth, I want to celebrate Immanuel every day because there is not one day that goes by that I could survive without having Christ with me.
So as you look back on Christmas and look forward to the New Year, don’t stop celebrating the birth of our savior and don’t forget about Immanuel. Live the next year in gratitude for the loved ones in our lives and for the fulfillment of God’s promise. No matter who leaves us on this earth; God is with us.
