“Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
Isaiah 7:14
From the Hebrew, Immanuel means "God with us". We know this because Matthew further explains this very fact.
“Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.”
Matthew 1:23
I believe that feeling God with us in not a matter of him choosing whether we are worthy to have him but more our choice to become aware of his presence. Jesus comes to the most lowly of mortals. He is with the shepherds, the blind, with the individual filled with disquieting spirits, with the lame. He is with me during the MRI, looking for cancer, in the chemo infusion room and even in the radiation room when everyone else must leave, He is with me. The more I look for him, the more I sense him around me. This turning towards Him brings me more and more fully awake to how he is always with us. Sometimes I turn away because of my own unworthiness and doubt He would not come to me because of my flaws. I struggle with sin, we all struggle with being unclean and sin is "waste", as Hugh Nibley coined it. Waste because we miss out on the refining of being in His presence. The more I want God with me the better choices I make.
"Sin is waste. It is doing one thing when you should be doing another and better things for which you have the capacity."
"Awake, my soul, no longer droop in sin!
2 Nephi 4
Here are twenty-four names of Christ and twenty-four days until Christmas. Check back here to find the contents page of this series
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