“You will give birth to a Son, His name is Emmanuel, God with us.”
Listening to this, gives us assurance of our security in God.
What separates Christianity from other religions is the fact that our religion is not based on a series of abstract premises but on a real person, Jesus Christ; God who took human flesh and lives among us, God who lives in us and with us and through our situation.
In the excitement of Christmas, we must never forget that God became one like us in order to liberate us (Matthew 1:21),and to reveal his love for us.
This is the essence of our celebration.
Scripture buttresses this fact in John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that He gave His Son”.
Essentially, this celebration is about us sharing in the divinity of Christ (2 Peter 1:4) to give hope to the hopeless.
Held hostage with so much uncertainties surrounding us, with Emmanuel, hope is here. We are to gift this hope,and assure others that God is with us.
Our joy should be based on the fact that Emmanuel is here to take away our burden, and to give us full assurance that we belong to Him and Him to us.
It is time to rethink our relationship with the Emmanuel and, by implication, we must see God’s love in our brothers and sisters, and radiate that love, the Emmanuel.
As we celebrate, let Emmanuel, let Christ remain in our Christmas.
Merry Christmas.
Father Anthony Ikhenoba, from Corpus Christi Church in Wokingham, writing on behalf of Churches Together in Wokingham
