The Real Meaning Of Christmas? We’re Not In This Alone

For some reason, holidays like Christmas illicit times of great excitement, anticipation, re-connecting with loved ones and fun. And I hope there will be lots more of that for you and your family this year.

But as most of us know or have experienced, holidays can also lead to less enjoyably emotions too such as loneliness, disappointment, loss, personal and family challenges, not having enough or the sense that this holiday won’t be like those of the past.

The good news of Christmas whether we’re experience positive, negative or emotions in between, is a word central to the Christmas story. Immanuel.

The word literally means, God With us. You see the power of this idea can get lost in our Christmas services, experience or quiet times, has the power to overcome even the toughest hardships. In fact, it could give us fresh, hope-filled strength and peace to not only get through the season but to walk into 2025 and the coming year with optimism and encouragement no matter what we’ve faced in 2024.

  I remember being on a 14000 mountain hike/climb with my son time and several other dads with one of their teens. And while we were nearing the top, we had encountered a huge slope of shale or loose rock that we had to overcome to reach the summit.

And it seemed like every time we took a few steps forward we slid one step back. It was exhausting to say the least. And I’m convinced that most of us mountain amateurs would have quit at some point due to the terrain and increasing altitude, we made it largely because of who was with us.

You see we had two young, experienced, in shape mountain guides who’d been with us from the beginning and weren’t about to leave us. They had extra water and food, encouraged us and showed us how to take a few steps and make them most efficient. We got to the summit and celebrated, but only through the pain but accompanied by those who knew who how to overcome.

Christmas is about Jesus, Emmanuel, God coming to be with us here on earth. And Christmas wasn’t the culmination of the story and its reality, it was and still is the beginning of the next part of God’s story.

The word is only used a couple of times, but that doesn’t take a away from its significance. Matthew 1:23 says, “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God with us.’).

Amazingly this was predicted hundreds of years before in the Old Testament book of Isaiah, chapter 7:14.

God Himself was coming to also be with us in human, visible form for 33 years. Eventually to die on the cross and rise again so that we could join God’s family, follow Him and now have Him with us in Spirit no matter what mountain or steep trail we face.

While yes, Christmas is a special time of giving and receiving gifts, there’s perhaps no greater gift beyond our salvation or spiritual birth into God’s family, than His being with us and now in us.

What does that mean in everyday life including this holiday and coming year?

When  you go to that medical appointment with its unknowns, when you think about that job loss or your limited funds, worry about that child or family member who’s strayed from family and/or faith, that friend who’s no longer your friend or whatever challenge is looming big for you.

You may still have to walk your difficult steps, like ours on that mountain, but God is with  you. And He will still give you the encouragement, strength and provision to keep going.

He can provide that in myriad ways, of course through the Bible. Look at Psalm 46:10 and be still. Read Philippians 4. Or sometimes His presence comes through other people or through a new idea in your heart or some other miraculous way. Often He helps us take one step up our mountain at a time.

In fact, stop right now even for just a few minutes and thank Him for being with you. Ask Him to keep that reality in front of you the rest of this season and into next year. While you may have lots of places to go, He’s not going anywhere. Immanuel.