God Is With Us! | A Virtual Pilgrimage for Advent & Christmas: Christmas Day

Reflecting on the name Emmanuel, ValLimar proclaims the heart of the Incarnation: not a distant God who fixes everything from afar, but a God who enters our mess, our pain, and our lives to be with us — always.

Join this virtual pilgrimage: htoh.us/advent

Learn More
Heart to Heart, a Catholic Media Ministry: htoh.us
420 W County Line Rd, Suite 200
Barrington, IL 60010

Submit a prayer request: htoh.us/prayers

Support our ministry with a financial gift: htoh.us/donate

Transcript

🎶 God is with me. God is with you. God is with us in this place — before and behind, below and within, above and around. God is with us. 🎶

“Behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel,” which, being interpreted, as God with us.

When reading this Gospel — Matthew’s Gospel — this name just stops me.

Emmanuel. God with us. Not God above us — though God is above us. Not God around us — though God is around us. But God with us. Present here. Right now. Right here.

Humanity cries out across the chasm we created: Where are you, God? And God’s answer is a baby. Not a theological treatise. Not a booming voice from heaven. A baby — in a feed trough — in an occupied land.

Born to a teenage mother who was probably terrified.

God’s answer to Where are you? is this: God is right here — in the mess, in the pain, in the ordinary, unglamorous, difficult places.

I’ve noticed something about this name. Matthew says, "They will call him Emmanuel." But in the Gospels, no one actually calls Jesus Emmanuel. And I think that’s because Emmanuel isn’t just a name.

It’s a description of his entire mission.

Every moment of his life, Jesus was living out that name: God with us. With the lepers everyone else avoided. With the tax collectors everyone else despised. With the women society dismissed. With the disciples when they failed. With Peter after he denied him three times. With Thomas in his doubt.

Jesus was with them.

I used to think the Incarnation was primarily about God coming to do something — to teach, to heal, to die for our sins. And yes, it’s about all of that. But I’m learning it’s also about God coming just to be with us.

God’s presence itself is the gift.

When Jesus wept at Lazarus’s tomb, he wasn’t crying because he didn’t know what he was about to do. He wept because Mary was weeping. He entered into her grief. Martha was weeping. He entered into her grief. He was with them in it.

This is the God we worship — not one who stands at a distance, unmoved by our pain, but one who steps into the tomb with us, who sits in the ashes with us, who knows what it feels like when the pain is so deep that all you can do is weep.

I went through a very trying time from sickness to healing with my husband, and I felt helpless. I couldn’t fix it. Some nights all I could do was just sit with him through the pain — through all of the side effects of chemo and radiation. I couldn’t do anything to fix it. I could just be with him, walk with him through it.

The Christmas story is full of people who weren’t okay. Mary, facing scandal and uncertainty. Shepherds, at the bottom of the social ladder. Wise men — outsiders seeking something they couldn’t quite name.

None of them had it all together. And God came to them anyway.

Even when God feels far away, God is there — whispering the name Emmanuel. God with us. Even now. Especially now.

This is why Christmas matters.

The Incarnation didn’t end when Jesus ascended to heaven. He promised, “I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Through his Spirit, he is still Emmanuel — still God with us — in our loneliness, in our pain, in hospital rooms, in broken relationships, in shattered dreams.

God is there — not fixing everything instantly, but being present. And somehow, God’s presence changes everything.

Emmanuel means we are never alone.

This is the miracle of Christmas: not just that God came, but that God stayed. And God is still here, speaking the name Emmanuel over every moment of our lives.

🎶 I am with you. I am with you. I am with you, says our God.

God is with me. God is with you. God is with us — before and behind, below and within, above and around.

God is with us. 🎶