Christmas & vales of tears#
This took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him ‘Immanuel’’ (which means ‘God with us’). - Matthew 1:21
At this time of year, I find it important to take a moment – as often as possible – to pause and remember the central fact of unimaginable wonder that lies at the heart of Christmas. God became a human being.
This is incomprehensible to some, and blasphemy to others. But to us who confess ‘Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father….’ who was ‘incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man’ – how eternally precious, glorious, essential, and world changing this truth is.
Matthew records for us that the child of Mary is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, the one who is called Immanuel because He is ‘God with us’.
That God is with us in Jesus means that God not only knows human life. and is no mere onlooker to human experience.
The Last Word:
Into any vale of tears, hope has come! God with us.
#Today's SoulSnack is a compilation of edited extracts from Archbishop Kanishka Raffel's '2024 Christmas Greetings'.