"With Us God!”
- Dec 26, 2025
- 5 min read
Merry Christmas!
We send our Christmas greetings and our love to you at this special time of the year. We, along with you, are praising God as we celebrate our Saviour's birth. The one that’s become the ‘With us God.’
May you have a blessed and peaceful Christmas.
Harry & Alice
Ann Voskamp once said, "I don't want a Christmas you can buy. I don't want a Christmas you can make. What I want is a Christmas you can hold. A Christmas that holds me, remakes me, revives me. I want a Christmas that whispers, Jesus."
Matthew has plugged into one of the most fundamental affirmations of Old Testament theology, which is the idea of the presence of God.
"Call him Immanuel" (Matt 1:23).
Studying His name, I’ve noted that ‘Immanu’ means “with us,” and “El” refers to Elohim a name for God in the Hebrew bible. What this seems to say is that Immanuel is not just another name for Jesus but it’s a wonderful promise: the “With us God.”
"With us God” becomes the key theological structure for the entire Gospel, since it brackets the story of Jesus beginning Matthew 1:23 to Matthew 28:20.
Matthew’s first words about Jesus in Matthew 1 are: “They will call him Immanuel–which means, God with us.” And Matthew’s last word about Him, reassures us that this hasn’t changed, “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (ch 28). The ‘With us God’ is key for our life today.
The ‘With us God’ can only mean a Powerful presence, Personal presence, Permanent presence. In Bethlehem, that first Christmas eve, Immanuel stepped out of eternity and into human history to become our ‘With us God.’ Not just “with us” in time, but “with us” in relationship.
Tim Keller said, "Christmas means that God is not content to be a concept or just someone you know afar off. He went to infinite lengths to get close to you."
Isaiah 7:14: “The virgin will conceive and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”
God wrapped Himself in humanity entered our space and time 2,000 years ago in a tiny village called Bethlehem, or as Galatians 4:4 says,"When the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive the full rights as sons."
Bethlehem is where the prophecy that was made in Isaiah, 700 years before, came true. The thing is, it’s as true today as it was then. God is always with us, near us and always for us. God still says, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Hallelujah!
Recently, I was challenged by John Haggai’s call to “Attempt something so great for God it’s doomed to failure unless God be in it.”
What a challenge this Christmas! I wonder what you’ll do!
To reinforce this thought, it was Tim Keller that once said, “The incarnation is the universe-sundering, history-altering, life-transforming, paradigm-shattering event in history.”
This is true for you and I today! Christmas holds the glorious wonder of the incarnation, of God's gift of grace and love wrapped up in the manger for you and I. Wow!
Not God near us, or God close by, but Immanuel, the ‘With us God.’
What a gift of grace! Or as the beautiful worship songs states,
WHAT GIFT OF GRACE IS JESUS, MY REDEEMER;
there is no more for heaven now to give.
He is my joy, my righteousness and freedom,
my steadfast love, my deep and boundless peace.
His gift has given us peace (Rom 5:1): "Therefore since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
His gift has given us a living hope (1Pet 1:3): "in his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus."
His gift has given us an unspeakable joy (1Pet 1:8): "filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy."
Let me remind you that the overall thought behind these blogs through the year is that God longs to be that place of refuge. He doesn’t want us to run from life and end up existing, He wants us to run to life, to come to Him!
(When you have time click the word ‘ABOUT’ at the top right-hand of the blog page you can read more about the blog.)
As you and I reflect on how we live His story, we have to acknowledge again the reality of Immanuel. Jesus is Immanuel, not just because He came to earth, but because He makes you and I the place where He dwells.
Christmas began in the heart of God. It is only complete when it reaches the heart of man! Your heart and mine, even today!
Wayne Grudem explains, “It is … joy that results from being in the presence of God himself, and joy that even now partakes of the character of heaven. It is the joy of heaven before heaven, experienced now in fellowship with the unseen Christ.”
His story continues! God is with us today; He’s chosen you and I for HIS story and to declare His glory! Praise His name!
The gift God gives us right now is the present of ‘presence.’ Now, of course, the greatest demonstration of God's presence that there has ever been is Immanuel - God with us.
Immanuel, the ‘With us God”, when things just aren’t working out! Immanuel, the ‘With us God”, when you’re alone and longing for that visit. Immanuel, the ‘With us God”, when there’s that emptiness within because you miss a loved one especially at this Christmastime!
And this is the mystery of Christmas. God stoops down to lift you up more than you could ever imagine, and in His light and love, the struggles and strains of life begin to ease.
Henry Nouwen said, “The challenge is to let God be who he wants to be. A part of us clings to our aloneness and does not allow God to touch us where we are most in pain. Often we hide from him precisely those places in ourselves where we feel guilty, ashamed, confused, and lost. Thus, we do not give him a chance to be with us where we feel most alone. Christmas is the renewed invitation not to be afraid and to let him-whose love is greater than our own hearts and minds can comprehend, be our companion.”
Blessing
May we stand strong in the Him who is ‘Immanuel’ our ‘With us God.’
May you abound in peace of the unexpected of our God
May you abound in the hope of an infant, the incarnation of love
May you abound in the love that builds hope in our life today.
And may you abound in grace this Christmas season brings.
‘A Christmas that holds me, remakes me, revives me.’
I like what Ann Voskamp said, and as I have been reminded Jesus is rh biggest we ever receive, and the gift of Christmas keeps giving gifts in the blessings we receive. A forever gift, not bought and forgotten but the gift always with us, Immanuel.
The challenge, one came into my thinking and it sure does need God to be right at the centre.