God Is With Us!

God is love. That means God's first purpose - his Plan A - always involves relationship. All God's plans and all God's methods are relational. God's very identity is wrapped up in relationships. Because God created human beings for relationship we share a similar identity. When Moses asked, "Who am I," God answered, "I will be with you" (Exodus 3:11-12). When Jeremiah objected, "I am too young," God countered with, "I am with you" (Jeremiah 1:6-8). Unfortunately, as fallen, self-centered human beings, relationships can seem a bit nebulous, unpredictable, and insecure. When it comes to religion, we prefer some kind of sanctified magic to relationship - we just want to find ways to get God to fix it - to make it stop, to keep it from happening, to give us whatever we want. What God wants to give us is his presence, his companionship.

The mystery and wonder of Christmas is the miracle of Immanuel, God With Us, in the person of Jesus Christ. Our Father-Creator was so determined to have a real, personal, intimate relationship with us God poured himself into humanity, entered into human history in time and space, and invited "whosoever will" to come back into the God-family. We want to make it about presents and events. For God, the Advent/Coming of Immanuel is all about relationships.

I suggest we can give two kinds of Advent gifts this year: (1) the gift of relationship with God through Christ, and (2) the gift of relationship with God through relationship with you. Be on the alert for someone who is hurting and alone, and offer them the gift of yourself as an expression of God's love. God is with us in Christ; God is also with us in our real, loving, human connections with each other and with "the least of these." Go and give yourself away!