The With-Ness of God

If you’ve been following my Facebook and Instagram feeds, then you know I’ve been thinking a lot about Emmanuel lately. Sure, it’s Christmastime and the birth of the baby in Bethlehem is on all of our minds (or at least I hope so). There’s no better way for God to show that He is with us in every possible way than to wrap Himself up in human flesh and live the son of a common carpenter and his young wife. God goes as far out of His way as He possibly can to cross the gap between Heaven and Earth.

Thing is, God has been with us all along. From the beginning of humanity when He walked in the Garden in the cool of the day to the end of time when He creates a new heaven and a new earth, the Bible brims with references to all the ways He is with us. So why do I have such a hard time believing it sometimes?

THE FACTS

God told us He would come as a child born from a virgin in Isaiah 7:14. It’s the verse where we get His name “Emmanuel” meaning “God with us.” And only one of hundreds of Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament. Depending on which theologian you ask, we’ve got somewhere in the range of 200-400 verses that point to Jesus’ birth. You can see a list of 68 or so that folks generally agree on at the website About-Jesus.org.

Back in the 1950’s, a mathematics professor decided to gather his students and collectively come up with the probability of one person fulfilling a couple of handfuls of these prophecies — eight to be specific. After a lot of verification, they determined that the chances were 1 in 10 to the 21st power. That’s the rough equivalent of covering the entire state of Texas with silver dollars up to two feet deep, marking one with a big red X, blindfolding someone, and having them pick out the marked dollar on the first try. And it’s a whole lot bigger than the number of people who’ve ever lived on the earth — that number is a 1 with eleven zeros after it, which is some numeration that I don’t have the brain cells to figure out.

It’s a lot.

Faced with these kinds of odds, the chances of Jesus not being the Messiah are basically nil. And since God has kept these promises in the birth, earthly life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, then we have very good reason to believe all of God’s promises about everything. It’s the kind of evidence my Western mind likes, and I have a hard time talking myself out of it. If it’s true that my Messiah was born as a baby in Bethlehem, then it’s just as true that He is Emmanuel, God with us — with me. It’s His name. It’s Who He Is. And He will not be anything else.

God doesn’t ask us for a blind faith.

SO WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?

Somehow, the concept of Emmanuel still feels fuzzy to me at times. Probably because I can’t see Him, touch Him, hear Him with my physical senses. I don’t trust my own ability to discern things spiritually with the degree of accuracy needed to put the full weight of my life on what I sense. That, and I figure that if He really is with me like He says He is, then things would be different in my world. I mean, doesn’t He see THAT happening? Why doesn’t He do something about THIS?

So, I try to apply the same process I apply to everything about God that confuses me. He writes His heart into ours as we bear His image, and He shows us something of how He relates to us in the way He’s designed us to relate to each other. In this case, I think about how I am “with” my own children no matter what. I’m not omniscient or omnipresent like my Heavenly Father (and my kids are grateful), but I am with them in a whole lot of the same ways. With them in the same house, living with them, mingling my life with theirs. With them in my heart, wanting only what’s best for them and always on their side wanting what’s best for them, even when they’re wrong. With them in the sense of offering them shelter and protection from life’s storms, creating safe places for them to land should they ever fall.

But does that mean that I fix everything in their lives? No, not if I want them to grow up and “adult” well. They’ll need to face some hardships on their own, and there have been times when I didn’t intervene when they really wanted me to, especially when they were younger and less mature than they are now. I didn’t run immediately to my son’s teacher when another child was picking on him in middle school, not before he had the chance to defend himself first. His father and I told him that once he spoke to the teacher and availed himself of the school’s student reporting process, if the verbal bullying continued, I would step in like the Momma Bear I am and defend my son. But he needed to flex his own muscles first. He did, and thankfully, the school followed through and took care of the issue. My son learned he didn’t have to be afraid of any bullies, even if his parents weren’t physically there to defend him.

Oh. I think I just figured it out.

DO NOT BE AFRAID

Perhaps more often than anything else about God’s “with-ness”, He says because He’s here with us, we don’t have to be afraid. He might ask us to flex our own spiritual muscles first and build up our own strength a bit. Even if we can’t see Him, Emmanuel says we have no reason to fear.

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you." (Deuteronomy 31:6 NIV)

But now be strong, O Zerubbabel,' declares the LORD. 'Be strong, O Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,' declares the LORD, 'and work. For I am with you,' declares the LORD Almighty. "This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.' (Haggai 2:4-5 NIV)

He shall say: "Hear, O Israel, today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not be terrified or give way to panic before them. For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory." (Deuteronomy 20:3-4 NIV)

But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a child.' You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 1:7-8 NIV)

"But you, O Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend, I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you. I said, 'You are my servant'; I have chosen you and have not rejected you. So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:8-10)

Has He made His point yet? Even though He’s not physically with me in a way that I and everyone else can see and touch (and wouldn’t that be fun if He were!), He is with me in an even greater sense than I am with my children. No, He’s not going to solve every problem for me, but He does promise that He’ll work it all out for my good (Romans 8:28-29) — another promise just as certain as that baby born in Bethlehem. I need to mature a bit in my faith, grow in the confidence that no matter what is up with me or the trouble I face, God is with me. And if you think I’m Momma Bear in defense of my children, wait until you see what God does at the end of time to all of the enemies of His children. It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the Living God (Hebrews 10:31).

And God is with me.

PRACTICING

I think I need more practice believing that God is truly with me, but the story of Jesus’ birth at Christmastime helps. When I doubt and I’m feeling a bit left alone, I think back to the baby’s cry in the night, the miracle of God’s promise kept against all odds. I remember how far He had to come to be with us as one of us, to live among common people without the advantages of wealth and fame, and to suffer all the things you and I suffer in this broken world. I know the Christmas story is true. Therefore, I know that it’s also true that God is with me.

It’s as simple as that.

Repetition helps us believe — did you know that? The more we think a thought the bigger it gets in our brains until it takes firm root and influences other thoughts up there. So this Christmas, I’m intentionally repeating all the ways God says He’s with us so that I can believe it better than ever. And more I believe it, the more I sense Emmanuel in my life, the better I recognize His nudges of encouragement, His hugs of approval, His comfort of my griefs, and His laughter at my silliness.

Someday, we will see Him face to face, wrap our arms around Him as Mary did, and feel Him wrap us up in His saving arms as Jesus did for her and all the rest of His disciples. But until then, because God kept the promise of Emmanuel at Christmas, we know He keeps His promise to be with us still.