December 21, 2008

God With Us

One of the most well-known Christmas passages in the Old Testament is when Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would be named Immanuel. That Hebrew word is translated “God With Us” (Isaiah 7:14). Isn’t that amazing! God came to live a human life. He experienced how we live. He understands how we feel.

The writer of Hebrews echoed this thought when he wrote, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15).

Have you ever heard of sympathetic resonance? Under certain circumstances, if you have two pianos in a room and a note is played on one, the same note will gently respond on the other. That’s incredible, but even more incredible is that God sympathizes with us. Whatever note is played in our life, our Father sympathizes with us and plays that exact note.

God is with us, and that makes Christmas Merry.