The Creator among Creation: Immanuel

Each year we celebrate Christmas in commemoration of the arrival of the promised Messiah at the village of Bethlehem in Judea.  Few things are commemorated even 100 years after they occur, as the generations that lived through them fade away, so does the living memory and thus the poignancy of memory.  "Remember the Maine" once evoked anger among Americans, much the same way that "Remember the Alamo" reverberated with a previous generation, and "Remember Pearl Harbor" would with a later generation.  Yet these now are a part of history to us, much the same way that "Remember 9/11" will be 100 years from now.  History moves on, the victories and defeats of the past, the joys and fears, don't linger much beyond those who lived through them.

The arrival of the Messiah is different.  It was not simply an event for the 1st Century, nor was it simply an event for the Jewish people.  It was an event for all of humanity, and for all of time.  How could it be?  How could the birth of a child, one among billions that have ever been born, be so noteworthy as to be relevant to us today two thousand years later?

Simply put, the child was not just a child.  He was indeed a human child, but he was also far more.  The term in Hebrew is transliterated into English as Immanuel.  As Hebrew names typically do, the name has a meaning: "God with us".  God had been "with" the descendants of Abraham for over two thousand years, had given them the Law, had sent angels and prophets to them to show them the way, and had even appeared in fire and cloud in the days of Moses.  How much more "with" his people could he get?  It turns out, a lot more.  The arrival of the Messiah was far more than that of just another prophet, more even than an angel who had stood in the presence of Almighty God.  The child of Bethlehem was the Son of Man, but he was also the Son of God.  The very essence of God, God himself, in the flesh, here on Earth.  

History was never the same after that day, a day that separated everything that came before from everything that was to follow.  God With Us.  A change worth celebrating, year after year, down through the ages.