Emmanuel- God in our midst

Matthew 1:23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel” (which means, God with us).

In Helsinki, I visited an exhibit of nativity scenes, based on Italian nativity scenes from the 17 and 18 hundreds.  At first, I was struck by the oddity of the anachronisms- women selling sausages, men discussing business in the street- all dressed in styles from a more modern time, and somewhere, in the midst of it all, the Holy Family. 

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14

But the more I looked, and the more I pondered, the more I came to love the symbolism of it.  He was there, in our midst.  He is here, in our midst.  Many of the people in the scenes went about their daily lives, oblivious to the greatest of all miracles: God among us.  The greatest moment in history was happening, and they were unaware.  Others though, stopped what they were doing.  They came to adore, bringing offerings of everyday life- bread, apples, fish

It made me wonder, what if we remade these scenes, changed the characters to people we see about us every day?  What if we added ourselves to the scene?  Do I go about my daily life, so busy with normality that I forget to ponder the miracle this season reminds me of?  Has the idea of a God who dwells with us become so familiar to me that it has lost its mystery?  Or do I still pause in what I'm doing, and stop in awe at the manger, to wonder at the God who became flesh and dwelt among us?

May you see Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, in your life this Christmas.  May you experience the wonder and the mystery of a God who humbled himself to become one of us. May you be like Mary, treasuring the miraculous in the midst of the ordinary, and pondering it in your heart.

"Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." Philippians 2: 5-8

But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed." Isaiah 53:5