Emmanuel

I was struck with awe this week at the thought of what the advent of Jesus means to me. A feeling of giddiness overcame me as I realised that when Jesus came into the world, an infant of a poor carpenter and his young bride, born under suspicious circumstances and of questionable lineage, not within the constructs of the Jewish calendar but coinciding with the census of the Roman empire, that God announced loudly and clearly that everyone is included. All are welcome, all are accepted. Whether a prostitute, an adulteress, a murderer, a magician, a thief, an orphan, a widow, a societal outcast, none are too low to have God live among them.

And so I, with all my faults and insecurities, have become a daughter of the God of the universe, a friend of the King of Kings. Emmanuel is with me. I, who was once far away, without hope and without God in the world, have been brought near through Christ. He is my peace and my access to the Father.

May we find peace, and know God with us, as we celebrate the Advent of our Lord.