Driving home from church on Sunday, I was by myself and I fell into one of those moods that hits me, where I really need God to make himself present or maybe give me more of a sense of His Presence, physically. I understand that He is very visible in the created things and that He manifests Himself supernaturally in many ways. But, I just needed something more relatable as a human, if you know what I mean. I wanted Him to be less invisible. So, as I was feeling this, a song came on and it voiced my emotions. I was feeling kind of lonely so I conjured up Jesus. Not in a weird ghost way. It was more that my spirit implored His presence to be with me in the car. That He would sit shotgun so I could hold His Hand. I don’t expect this to resonate with you necessarily. You may have a very solid connection with Him and feel Him at a deep level that doesn’t require any human type relationship components. Or maybe this whole concept is foreign and you don’t have any connection with Him. All I know, is that I need to experience Him in prayer, Bible study, fellowship, miracles, Holy Spirit and then, every once in a while, something akin to His “physical” presence. Maybe my way to feel Him close is unorthodox, but I think all believers want to know He’s near. I am certain He absolutely understands that need and so He designated that Jesus would be known as Emmanuel. I found this on jellytelly.com:
•The word “Emmanuel” comes from the Greek rendering of two Hebrew words, `immanu, “with us,” and ‘el, “God”… The word is found three times in the Bible: Isaiah 7:14 , 8:8 , and Matthew 1:23 )- Matthew 1:23 is citing Isaiah 7:14: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us)” (1:22-23). Thus, Matthew tells his readers that Jesus’ birth fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah.•
Here’s the cool thing about that. God’s love is greater than the scope of human imagination. It cannot be measured since he is Love. (1John 4:8) and so, regardless of how I perceive Him, or how I feel, He is always Present. This is why Ephesians 3:18 is so important: “may you have the power to understand… how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is, to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
Basically, Love with us.
Love Always ???