Ministry 

God With Us

Sometimes we can wonder where God is when life is hard or things go wrong. Assuming there is a God, we tend to expect good things from whoever or whatever we might imagine God to be. When we face tragedy, illness, hardship or personal loss of any kind, we can start to think that God doesn’t care, or has abandoned us, or is maybe even punishing us for some reason. 

In the birth of Jesus, we see a different picture of God. When an angel appeared to Joseph, the man who was promised in marriage to Jesus’ mother, he said that people would call Jesus ‘Immanuel’ which means ‘God is with us’ (you can read the full story in Matthew 1:18-25). 

We can often think that God is with us in the good and joyful times of life, or when everything is going well. When we hear the details of Jesus’ birth, however, we also learn that Jesus is with us in the times when life is difficult or uncertain or messy. Jesus was born to an unmarried teenaged girl. His parents had to travel a long distance because of an Imperial census and were facing uncertainty in their lives. Jesus didn’t have nice baby clothes or a comfortable cot to sleep in; he was born among the animals, wrapped in strips of cloth, and placed in a feeding trough. 

God entered human existence as a helpless baby, completely dependent on the love and care of the people around him, in conditions that were hostile, complicated, and unsanitary. 

Jesus’ birth tells us that when life is uncertain, or messy, or hard, or hurtful, God is there in the person of Jesus. God turns up when we are alone, or in pain, or in and kind of need, to assure us of his loving presence with us and to give us everything we need for life in this world and the next. Even if we feel like God has abandoned us, when the baby Jesus grew up and went to the cross, his cry asking why God had abandoned him (Mark 15:34) tells us that he is still with us in even the darkest or most difficult of circumstances. 

Christmas is a time for joy and celebration for lots of different reasons. For Christians, we find joy and hope in the faith that in all the circumstances of life, both good and bad, easy or difficult, happy or sad, God is with us to give us his grace and blessing through the birth of Jesus. 

God’s peace and hope be with you and your families as we celebrate Jesus’ birth and throughout the New Year.

Pastor Eugene