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"'Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel' (which means, God with us)."
(Matthew 1:23)
Enduring through the long winters here in Germany is definitely a challenge for me. I'm a California-born, Texas-raised girl, so obviously, cold weather is not my friend. But the extremely short days and long-lasting cold temperatures here also bring about one of my favorite parts of living here: Christmas markets! If you've ever been to Germany around Christmas time, you know all about the magic of a German Christmas market. They are so whimsical and fun and full of the best food and activities. They are such a bright spot in a long, cold winter. As all of the Christmas markets opened this week, it is so interesting to me how the culture in Germany is so incredibly "post-Christian", with very little of the population being followers of Jesus, yet so much of German life revolves around its Christian history. Everything is closed on Sundays, there are multiple churches in every little town, and Christmas markets are everyone's favorite activity. Though the culture has tried to secularize these traditions as much as possible, the reality is that they all revolve around the greatest moment in history: when God came down as a baby to dwell with His people in human flesh and then to die for our sins.
This week, we have been tracing the theme of God's desire to dwell with His people all throughout the story of Scripture. In the Old Testament, we examined how the Lord has displayed this to us through the Garden of Eden, the Tabernacle, and the Temple. Today, we jump forward into the New Testament. This chapter in the story is the one you likely know best.
God had been relentlessly pursuing relationship with His people all throughout the Old Testament. Reading this leaves us with such a longing for the promised Messiah and with such a desire for God to dwell among His people as He did in Eden.
Enter center stage: Jesus of Nazareth!
"'Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel' (which means, God with us)." (Matthew 1:23)
God with us! Wow! Hallelujah! God desires to dwell with us. But as we have seen, sin creates a huge problem in this story... so God came down. He put on human flesh to dwell with His creation and pay the penalty for our sins. In John 1:14, the Scriptures say, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." Literally, this verse says that the Word, who is Jesus, became flesh and "tabernacled" among us.
Do you remember what happened in the Temple after Jesus died on the cross? The veil was torn. The veil that protected the people from the presence of God in the Holy of Holies was no longer needed. All sin had been atoned for, once and for all, and God's presence is now accessible to anyone who would repent and follow Jesus, thus receiving forgiveness for their sin that separated them from God.
I may be getting ahead of myself a bit here with Christmas coming soon, but we can talk about the first coming of Christ any day of the year! As you begin entering this Advent season, thank God for coming as a baby to dwell with man so that all of mankind could dwell with God again in intimate fellowship.
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