Emmanuel
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. Matthew 1:23

This story, like many stories I tell, was taken from a real-life scenario from a friend of mine:
While our son Kev was being wheeled into surgery, he just kept crying for his bear he had named Baby Jesus. Although Evie was only getting tubes, Kevin was having a more serious surgery. To be honest, that bear that had been dragged through the mud, into stores, many doctor visits, and finally into the hospital, had unknowingly become my security blanket that day.

I remember the empty feeling I felt as the nurse took Baby Jesus from me and took him off to the operating room to comfort my own baby. I know, it was an inanimate object, but just the feel of Kev’s ugly, scrawny, yet loved bear was somehow giving me comfort when I didn’t have my own baby in my arms.

I sat there in the waiting room for a few minutes feeling empty and alone when suddenly I remembered my Emmanuel. My “God with us!” While Kev needed that bear to give him comfort in his childlike belief of Baby Jesus, I had the real-life version of a Savior who came on Christmas morning. Born to die so that on the morning of my son’s surgery, Kev, in his childlike faith could cling to a bear named Baby Jesus and I could be filled with the presence of the now arisen King who knew my suffering mama’s heart and comforted me like no other person or object can.

The Hebrew "Immanuel" literally means “with us is God!” Can you imagine? No matter what we have to face, a tough class at school, a bully who will not leave us alone, a surgery we are dreading, a fear we just can’t get past; it doesn’t matter, God is with us!
One of my favorite Christmas songs. Hope you enjoy!


[image error] [image error]If you enjoyed this post today, it is an excerpt from The 25 Days of Christmas Family Devotional. You can grab a copy for your family by clicking the cover to go to Amazon.