The Power of With…
I wrote this back in December, 2021. That was a very hard season and I had no idea what the road ahead held for our family. But now, 3 years later, I can say that ours is a story of miraculous sustaining grace. Not the loaves and fishes miracle I had hoped for, but the oil for the widow and her son that reset and was enough for each new day.
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace.” -Isaiah 9:6-7
When Jesus was born, it was after a very long, dark and silent period. About 400 years is what we are told between the story of the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Jewish people had been passing down the prophecies and promises of a coming messiah for many, many generations. When the birth of Christ finally came and the prophecies of the hundreds of years prior were seemingly fulfilled, He was born into Jewish oppression. The expectation was for a warrior Messiah, that would free them from the oppressive state they lived in. But instead it was a poor baby, born to a teenage girl without any earthly comforts. What they wanted, what we all want, is rescue. But what He did was ‘with’.
The hope of Advent is ‘God with us’. I have heard this phrase all my life. He will be called Immanuel, God with us. But I think the significance of that gets lost in our culture of fix it, avoid it, change it and get rid of it. Then so many times, this is how we approach the hurt and suffering of others. When there is chronic pain, trauma, lingering circumstances, we really struggle to just be with people. When I read and study about the life and ministry of Jesus, this is something he models over and over again. This is something that He does very well. He doesn’t come to say live this way and all will be fine. He doesn’t come to shame and condemn or tell people to try harder. He doesn’t ever get exhausted by another’s pain and throw unhelpful cliches their way. He sits with them, weeps with them, changes His plans for them and climbs into the pit and takes on their pain. And then after a long day or in the quiet morning, He goes to His Father in prayer to share that burden and ask for strength to continue. I never completely understood why Jesus, God, would need to go to God for strength. But the older I get and the deeper into my relationship with Jesus I go, I see the importance of the intimate community and burden sharing. I see that once again He is modeling not only the importance of presence and with but where we draw that strength from to enter into the struggles and pain of another. So many times, I take on the hurt and emotions of others, desperately wanting to encourage and help them. But then I find myself depleted, depressed and exhausted. I have to keep going back to the example He set for us, how to be with and then how to draw strength from my source to be able to continue that work - through quiet, through prayer, through reading His Word and journaling. In this Advent season, I am extremely grateful for the gift of ‘God with us’. It has been a dark and hard season. There are many forms of oppression that press in on us. We all have felt it and experienced it in different ways but in one form or another, it is there. I don’t really feel the Christmas spirit of joy this year. I can’t trick myself into feeling very jolly. It’s been a long, hard season and there’s an unknown road ahead for my family. But it has also given me this ability to slightly tap into the culture of what Jesus was born into. There have been so many moments that all I can do is breathe in and out, Jesus be with me. And because of Advent, He is. He came to be with us. He put on flesh and accepted physical limits. He wept, sweat blood from anxiety and climbed willingly into the pit of despair and loneliness. There is nothing that we experience that is beyond His reach or understanding. He is with me in my spirals. He is with you in your chronic pain. He is with us. The gift of Advent is the powerful gift of ‘with’. He is just a breath away. My prayer is that you would reach out and invite Him into whatever hardship or season you are facing. He might not rescue you from it, but His presence and love will carry and sustain you through it. He will be called Immanuel, God with us. Grace and peace to you this holiday season.
