God with us

Friday December 24th, Matthew 1: 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." The new thing has happed and is happening today in the lives of those around us. God is with us and has been with us all along. God is with you and God is with me. God is with the people in our churches and God is with those who wouldn’t dream of ever setting foot in any kind of church. This new thing that God has done is both a blessing and a calling. A blessing knowing that God will continue to be with us and that our salvation and forgiveness is already given, a gift from God. A calling knowing that God will continue to be with others in this world and we are called to deal with them, friends and enemies alike, knowing that we are dealing with the children of God. Make no mistake, this does not make them automatically easy to get along with. It does not say that they see us as a brother or a sister, it is after all about our calling not theirs. It does not make things all sweet and wonderful all the time, or even some of the time. It simply compels us to treat one another as brothers and sisters in Christ and maybe, just maybe in the long run, we, or our children, or our grandchildren will know what it is like to live in peace.