Christmas Words

Hello, friends!

A few days ago, I asked the Facebook world to choose my next writing prompt from these options:

• Emmanuel
• Noel
• Advent
• Goodwill
• Nativity
• Holy

All of these words are obviously based around a theme - Christmas. But how often this December have you found yourself basing your Christmas season around different words? Here are some of mine just from the past week:

• Pandemic
• Exhaustion
• Not the same
• Fear
• Irritation
• Don't

The winning word from my Facebook post was "Emmanuel." We are probably most familiar with this word from the Advent hymn "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel." While this hymn certainly talks about the Son of God appearing to us, as he did on Christmas Day, it is really talking about a future event.

"O come, O come, Emmanuel,

And ransom captive, Israel,

That mourns in lonely exile here

Until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice! 

Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel!"

We are the captive Israel, held here in this world of sin and doubt. We are waiting for the Son of God to appear, for Emmanuel to come back. That's what we pray for every time we say, "Come, Lord Jesus." Those aren't idle words. That is a hopeful, powerful prayer, in which we are trusting that Jesus will come back someday and rescue us from everything that causes us pain.

What shall we do in the meantime, you ask?

(It's so convenient that you always ask exactly what I'm going to write about next.)

"O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" gives us some ideas there, too. It talks about following in the path of wisdom, obeying the Commandments, trusting in God's mighty power and victory, and desiring God above divisions. 

Most of all, the refrain reminds us to "Rejoice!"

We can't forget about the items on the second list I mentioned above. We can't just put those things on a shelf and pretend they don't exist. That's not how life works, unfortunately. We can, however, continually remind ourselves and each other that God loves and strengthens us, no matter what is going on around us. "Emmanuel" means "God with us," and he is, every day.