God Is With Us

In the great feast that we gather and celebrate this day, the only ones who know who Jesus is and where to find him, are the angels. These angels, you see, are very important. Without angels, no one would know one child from the next. Without angels, no one would know that the child born of Mary was the Saviour and Son of God. Without angels, no one would know where to look. Probably without angels, the shepherds would never have thought to look in a barn.

I think God made angels to tell us three very important things.

The first one is: God wants to be close to us. Very close. God wants to get as close as possible. So close that God can laugh and cry, and be hurt and comforted, grow and learn, be born and die, just like us. When you understand that message, then you will begin to wonder, how you can be close to God.

The second message is about where to find God. Where you look is what Christmas is all about. You have to look in unlikely places—in places where perhaps you would never expect to find God. Not with the powerful and the rich and famous, but with the weak and the powerless—with those who need protection, like a baby. When you understand that message, then you will begin to reach out to others who are helpless and powerless, and you will discover God.

The third message is about family. When God wanted to come to us and there was no room anywhere, there was room in a family. We all come from families, and every family looks a little different, but every family is a sacred and holy place. When you understand that message, then you will begin to see church as family and the place where you and your friends and your family and your home can learn about God, about forgiveness, about love, respect, and about holiness.

Now these are the things that angels know about and these are the things that the angels came to tell us: God wants to be close to us and we must find every way possible to be close to God. God is found where ever there are people who need protection, and we must take care of others who need us. God makes families, biological and church, holy, and in our family we learn to pray and grow to be holy.

Now if you think about this: you know who Jesus is. You know where to find him, and you know the message, so in a sense this day, we realize, we are like the angels—we have a message to tell and people to lead, and God wants us to spread the news, show the way, and to celebrate and rejoice this day.

Throughout the world this day, there are many gifts and many presents, many celebrations. But here in the manger is the only gift that matters: God so close to us that he is one of us, found in a most unlikely place, a child who makes us all family, brothers and sisters: Emmanuel, God with us. Merry Christmas.