Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Immanual; God With Us


A few days ago, I was speaking to a group of people about the Christmas. I was surprised how we Nepali friends have understood the Christmas. Many a time, it is just a replacement of our previous festival. It sometimes becomes a burdensome to some families who could not afford to buy new clothes, jewelery, or food items during the Christmas. This is because they did the same in their previous days, buying new clothes, new food. Sometime, we become constrained by society and culture. Sometime we try to adopt all those styles and methods what the west follows. I call it as ‘passive burdens’. This even compels them to take a loan from others, and that becomes a burden to the family for a long time.

What does the Christmas mean to us. What does it tell to you and me? We looked at the word “Immanuel” and pondered about the Lord. "Immanuel" is a Hebrew word meaning "God with us" and expresses the wonder of the incarnation, that God "became flesh and made his dwelling among us" ( John 1:14). Would not it be an exciting to the world, that the Lord of majesty wants to dwell among us. By the way what does it mean when we say ‘God with us.” It certainly gives us the confidence that we are together with the Lord. The Christmas is a reminder to us that we are not alone in our journeys. The Immanuel walks with us together, stays with us, counsels us. No matter which caste and color do we come from, no matter what language group do we belong, He is with us. It breaks all those barriers, and this is the beauty of Immanuel.

Let us look at it from the other side of story. You might be familiar with the word ‘Reputation.’ The Webster’s defines it as, ‘the common opinion that people have about someone or something.’ This is what the most people care about: what others think of them. It is everything to do what we are known for, negatively or positively. Now it is exactly opposite with the Lord. He disregarded reputation all together. I think, only someone who is divine could actually do it. The crazy thing is that most of us only care about what others think of us and disregard what God says about us.

Are we willing to sacrifice our reputation, our pride of what we are doing, pride of our culture, or it may be our civilization, our languages? Having all of the glory and majesty, if the Lord could become ‘Immanuel,’ how-much more we as his children have to think… God With Us.


1 comment:

Mrs. B said...

Jesus told his followers: the least shall be the greatest in my kingdom. How wonderful if we as believers lived to lose our lives for the gain of knowing Christ and his Resurrection power and fellowship of his sufferings.