Immanuel, you are with us ...

"Glory to God in the highest!"

Where has the time gone! December has simply skipped by. Melissa, Roman & I have been swamped with Christmas celebrations, family gatherings, my birthday, our anniversary ... you name it, it happens in December for our family. But even with all the busyness, I've always loved Christmas. For my whole life it has consistently topped the list of holidays as my favorite. Every year I try to take just a little time and contemplate what it all means ...

From the vantage point of my wide, childish eyes, Christmas was filled with wonder, awe and mystery. The flickering candlelight, dark, rich colors and songs filled with words of joy yet tunes of sorrow. All of this to commemorate the most strange, unlikely event; the God of the universe incarnate within a young Middle Eastern virgin.

Take a second to ponder this ... the Lord Almighty, the king of Glory left his position of power, his position of authority, his position of privilege to become a man. The most royal and prestigious families of the Earth would have been unworthy to posses this child whose glory was unequaled from the beginning and until the end of time. However, the child wasn't born into a royal family but into an obscure one: A young, poor girl from Nazareth in Galilee. The Christmas story is filled with stories with this theme: Glory lavished upon obscurity. Think about it ...

• Wise men from a far Eastern land seeing a sign of glory in the heavens and spending a fortune to come and lavish royal gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh on a child whose bed was a manger.
• A host of glorious angelic beings sent to proclaim the coming of the child, not to world leaders but to a nameless band of shepherds.
• The promise of God to an old priest that he would meet the child Messiah.
• The King of Kings and Lord of Lords raised in the town of Nazareth in Galilee by a carpenter and a young woman who had to endure the shame of pregnancy outside of wedlock.

All examples of glory lavished upon obscurity.

When I'm thinking about such things, I must confess that the first thought that comes to my mind is "What a waste!" Why did men of such wisdom see the need to visit the baby Jesus at great personal expense? Doesn't that seem like a pretty bad investment? What use did Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus have for a chest of gold or flasks of frankincense & myrrh? Couldn't God's plan for the redemption of mankind gone on without the glorious announcement to the shepherds? Wasn't it kind of a waste of breath? Why does God lavish His glory upon our obscurity?

When you're talking about obscurity Altoona certainly seems to fit the bill. It seems that our city is filled with people who feel they have been discarded & abandoned. Communities that have rising crime and shrinking/aging populations are often written off as a "bad investment" or a "waste of time". Obviously attitudes like these contribute to the feelings of depression and loneliness that we've referred to so often on this blog. The fact that we serve a God who has a history of lavishing his glory on places like Bethlehem of Judea, Nazareth of Gallilee or Altoona of Pennsylvania should give us great hope! Yet the joy of knowing that God DOES lavish His glory on us can't compare to the joy we receive with we understand WHY He lavishes his glory on us.

"Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." Isaiah 7:14

Matthew informs us that this ancient name given to the Messiah means "God with us". It doesn't mean God is with us when we are powerful or that God is with us when we obey the rules perfectly. It means God is with the no name shepherds, he is with the blue collar carpenter, he is with us in our pain, our obscurity and, yes, even our sin.

"What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" Romans 8:31,32

God is with us because he loves us. This is the message of Christmas. Let us carry this message into the new year, into Altoona and into the world.

Today:

• Pray that God would release us from our own feelings of abandonment and despair.
• Pray that Altoona's Christians would be God's grace and love with those who are lost.
• Pray for God's blessing on the year 2008!