Never alone again — not ever

God’s special envoy told Joseph, “They shall call him Emmanuel, meaning ‘God is with us.’” From that birth onward — the birth of Jesus — there has been no doubt, only proclamation, that we are not alone on this planet. God is with us!

What great news to all people! No longer must we hear a teaching that God created the earth and all there is. No longer must we depend upon a set of rules even to display in the public square. Now and forever we know that God is with us. The planet is inhabited by its creator God.

“Forsaken” is no longer in the dictionary of us earthlings. Oh, at times we feel it. At times, we don’t want to believe anything else. But the truth born in Bethlehem is that we are not alone.

A story: my 27th Christmas was followed by my wedding three days later on December 28. The day after we were married, I conducted my first funeral as a pastor.

Several years after that, I visited that widow and she said, “John, I will never forget what you said to me when Ernest died.”

Well, I just knew that I had said something very profound and asked, “Well, Carrie what did I say?”

She said, “John, you said, the Lord is with you.”

No greater news can be declared at death, birth, marriage, divorce, or any of life’s tough intersections than “The Lord is with you.”

This Christmas there are parents who worry deeply about their children many of whom may be trapped by the world’s ugliest stuff. I say to parents and to the children who may not have the wherewithal to worry that the Lord is with you. Children may go to bed hungry Christmas night, but no child is without God. If I had to choose between the Lord’s provision, power, or presence, I would always select his presence.

A little girl cries out for her parents in the midst of a loud thunderstorm. Her father comes in and comforts her with the words, “The Lord is with you.” She responded, “Yes, I know, but I want someone with skin on him.”

Jesus of Bethlehem showed up and showed us that God has a tan. No longer is God reserved for the religious professors and the library. He now is the son of Mary. He now is born in a little nowhere town, but still a point on the map. He is now flesh of our flesh and bone of our bones.

I don’t have a clue what the President’s new strategy in Iraq should be. I don’t begin to comprehend why six and one half million Jews perished in Europe while America was swinging to the music of Benny Goodman, a Jew. I can’t tell you why a men’s bath-house disease devastates innocent African children who haven’t even thought about their sexual preference.

But of this one thing I am sure: God is with us. He is with the gay men of San Francisco as well as the orphans of the Sudan. He is with the atheist as well as ardent devotees of the Bible and Koran. He is with the suicide contemplator as well as those who must endure the consequences.

So, go and tell it on the mountain, man! Over the hills and everywhere, youngin! Jesus Christ is born. In a stable, out back. To a virgin. Never alone ever again.