He's Here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have two six-year-old granddaughters who live far apart geographically.  But both of them love celebrating the Christmas season in very different ways.  One has worn -- literally daily in December-- a different Christmas outfit, a colorful combination of red, green, and pink tops and dresses every day, sometimes in rather unusual arrangements.  Even those she outgrew years ago, way too short, she pulled out of the back of the closet and paired with some leggings.

The other has a new dress with a Christmas motif.  I asked her last week if she was enjoying wearing it.  "Gramma!" she scolded me.  "It is a Christmas dress.  I am saving it for our Christmas Eve service."  A service, may I note, that is virtual this year.  But it is Christmas Eve.  And it is not just special in her eyes, but a sacred time not just to celebrate, but to worship.

Even as young as they are, both girls recognize and acknowledge that Christmas -- even in this strange and unusual year-- is not just a national holiday, or event, or just another day -- but Jesus came.

And that changes everything.

The angels sang, "He's here!"   

But God did not just show up.  He has been here all along.  All through Scripture, Old and New Testament, God says, "Do not fear.  I am with you."  

This year is no exception.  We needed those words more than ever.

The very last verse in the book of Ezekiel says, "The LORD who is here."  (Ezekiel 48. 35)

That is one of the names of God.  We are here.  And God is with us.  

We need to speak out loud His name, even in our weariness and the mysteries of this year, filled with unrest and pandemic suffering and death, uncontrollable wild fires, political craziness, injustice, and zoom everything.  Recite and repeat the reality of Emmanuel.  God is not out there somewhere.  God is with us.  God is.

Worship is not just something we do, but something that does something to us.  More than we can know.  As a result, we see God differently, others differently, circumstances and even ourselves.  "But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God."  (Psalm 73. 16-17)

We will never fully understand all of this, but when we come before Him, we can trust Him in it, no matter the circumstances.  He is with us.

This Christmas, our little granddaughters (and their siblings) are rejoicing the spectacular that has happened in time and space and in our lives.  This is a time to celebrate.  Even when everything else looks weary, these little saints have spotted the underlying patterns of the sacred order.  "And on that day there shall be inscribed on the bells of the horses, "Holy to the LORD!" Zechariah 14. 20    May we inscribe those words even on the most ordinary of days and deeds to help us realize there are no ordinary days and deeds in God's narrative.

And we celebrate not just the coming of the Jesus child, but Christ the Savior of the world.

He's here.

He's here with us.