Matthew’s Gospel recalls the words of the prophet Isaiah announcing the promise of God’s coming and the manner in which he would arrive and stay with us saying:
‘Look! The virgin will conceive a child!
She will give birth to a son,
and they will call him Immanuel,
which means “God is with us.”’ (Matthew 1:23 New Living Translation)
The famous Christmas carol, ‘Away in a manger’ invites you and me to behold the reality of God’s promise as it paints this vivid picture of a son born of a virgin whose very name means ‘God is with us’. It is unexpected, yet so dramatic that our senses cannot escape the truth unfolding.
This nearness of God revealed in the Christ-child born on Christmas morning opens a door not just for humanity but, more to the point, this action of God activates and enacts the carefully purposed and planned redemption of God’s creation as a whole. It is an acknowledgment of love demonstrated in his coming to us and a celebration of a promise fulfilled.
The invitation to come closer carries with it a promise to encounter God in his fulness in and through the Son. So, take a moment with the words of the carol. Come close to the manger. Look in and see the Saviour. Smell and feel the hay on which he lays. Listen and hear the gentle sound of cattle lowing in the background and the Christ-child breathing. God is near, and near to stay.
As we read this Christmas carol, may the reality of God coming to us in the flesh be an eternal prayer for all people, everywhere, that we will increasingly become fit for his stay. God considered us worthy and in need of his coming.
The Epistle to the Colossians reminds us that ‘…God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself…’ (Colossians 1:19–20 NLT). May we too experience the fullness of God’s nearness and have the courage to ask him to stay in our lives and in our world this Advent.
