One Saturday morning this fall, our family sat in the backyard and started dreaming about the coming months. We woke up to a chill in the air, and the change in weather birthed excitement among my family. Saturday morning is Sabbath for us, and we were filled with peace that comes from resting. Joy filled us as we thought about all that we had to look forward to in the coming months. The start of football in September, Halloween in October, Thanksgiving in November - each celebration and each month building up to our favorite month of all, December. Settled in an Adirondack chair with a cup of coffee in my hand, watching my 8 and 11 year old’s eyes light up envisioning their favorite season, it was one of those moments where time stands still as you’re filled with a deep sense of gratitude.
All of this anticipation was bubbling over at the beginning of September! What is it about the expectation of December and the Christmas season that is so contagious it can even be felt months in advance?
I think we come by Christmas anticipation naturally, considering one of the greatest Old Testament prophets, Isaiah, spoke the words of God that the people could expect a future king. This king would be known as Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. And wait in expectation the people of Israel did! For 700 years after Isaiah, they longed for this promised king. For them, hope was anchored in anticipation.
The Advent season is a season of waiting and expectation. With what expectations are you heading into this Advent season?
Are you expecting stress from a calendar bursting at the seams? Are you expecting a credit card bill higher than what is currently in your checking account? Are you expecting hard conversations with your ex-spouse, estranged child, or aging parent?
What if you had different expectations for December this go round? What if, like the people of Israel millennia ago, you expected and longed for the Savior?
It all started with a promise: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel, God with us (Isaiah 7:14).”
God’s promise to the Israelites is the same promise for us today: He promises us himself.
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us (John 1:14).” God with us.
We are such “with” creatures. “With” is the fuel of being relational. Between the ages of 22 and 26 I was in relational ministry working with teenagers. For five years I was “with” teenagers. I went to their games and performances. I took pictures with them before prom. I baked cookies with them, went to the movies with them, and I went with them to Starbucks so much that I achieved Gold Card status. They only ever expected me to observe their life from a distance. Instead, I dove into the deep end, longing not only to share the gospel of Jesus with them, but my very life (1 Thessalonians 2:8). Each new teenage friend I made was always astounded that I wanted a friendship with them.
I was with them right after their parents told them about the affair that was splitting them up. I was with them when they confessed to having an eating disorder. I was with them when they regretted drinking too much over the weekend.
I was with them when they read the Bible for the first time. I was with them when they shared their testimony in front of a group of peers. I was with them as they surrendered doing life their way and decided to try doing it Jesus’s way.
I longed to do life with them, point them to the life-giving truth of Jesus, and build deep friendship. Looking back, I know the greatest wins during that season were just showing up, listening, being with them. I know this to be true because most of my mess ups during those five years were moments when I said too much. Conversations where I pushed my agenda forward. Any of the relationships I feel I drove away were when I stepped in and offered advice or correction they weren’t looking for from me. Those instances were always because of my great love for each of them, and an enormous desire to protect. And yet, that’s not what they needed most from me at that moment. What they needed most from me, as always, was to just be with them. They needed someone who would walk a lonely road with them. If I had swapped forcing my way and just walked through the hard, I believe my being with them would have provided the space for them to share and maybe even ask for help.
That’s how Jesus did it.
John 8:3-10
As Jesus was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.“Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?” They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.
When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman.
Here is Jesus’s big moment. He could call out her offense in front of the crowd. He could scold her privately. He could point out to her how she could avoid getting in a situation like this next time.
Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”
Instead, Jesus chooses to be with her. He is the embodiment of his name, Immanuel, God with us. He stays with her until everyone leaves. He stands with her. He asks her a question. He offers a better way. He is with her. And for Jesus, “with” always equals love, mercy, forgiveness, and grace.
Matthew 1:21-23
She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” - which means, “God with us.”
“With” is the way God always meant it to be. It’s how it all started in the Garden.
Genesis 3:8a
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day.
From the very beginning, the Lord was not a far away God. He did not rule and reign from a distance. He did not create Adam and Eve and then leave them alone. He’s always been God with us. He was with them in the garden. Walking. We equate being with someone as walking through life with them. That’s how God always intended to be with his creation: walking with us. And yet we know all too well the rest of chapter 3 of Genesis. The fall broke our relationship with God. We put a wedge between us and God. We told him, I don’t want to walk with you, I don’t want to do life with you, I want to go at it alone. But not even our sin could stop God from continuing to find a way to be with us.
During Advent we wait in expectation of hope fulfilled and a promise kept. God promised he would find a way to save us from ourselves, to be God with us again.
Did you know Jesus just wants to be with you this Christmas season? It’s the reason why he came the very first Christmas, and it’s a reality we are invited into every year. This Advent, may slow Sabbath Saturdays in my Adirondack be a tangible reminder that God longs to be with my family and me. And for you, may the expectation of love, peace, joy and hope this Advent season be met and exceeded by Immanuel, God with us.
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God,
thank you that you went to the greatest lengths of sending your son Jesus to this earth so that you could be with me. This was your rescue mission to save me from the wedge I drove between us. What a relief to know you will never stop pursuing me. This Advent season, help me to respond to your invitation to be with you. I long to be with you, too. In your arms I am safe, known, and loved. In the name of Jesus, Immanuel, God with us. Amen.
