We’ve been singing God With Us in church quite a bit recently and I’ve been struck by the chorus in particular:

All that is within me cries
For You alone be glorified:
Emmanuel, God with us.

Perhaps it’s the longer notes of the word Emmanuel or maybe it’s simply a well-written song in general, but it gets to me. Like lump-in-the-throat gets to me, every single time.

Emmanuel. God with us! All year long we sing this song and all year long it rings absolutely, positively true. It’s not a song meant only for the Advent season, but it applies so perfectly at this time of year. God is not a distant figure, a Creator who has stepped back from his creation. He sent his Son to earth to redeem his beloved people from the distance sin had caused. And so we celebrate, with gratitude, the birth of Jesus Christ.

This amazing God, loving and righteous, is with us. Emmanuel.