Immanuel - God with us!

Immanuel

We walked home in the dusk with our neighbor Pablo and his little daughter Gabriela. He was drunk, and could hardly walk up the hill, so he leaned on Gabriela as she held his hand and pulled him. Pablo was crying as he stumbled along. Not being able to see clearly in the fading light, he called out to me, “Arturo, is that you? Can you hear me? I am really sad tonight, as my wife just took off and left me. Now I’m alone with my kids and they are crying too.”

As we arrived at the top of the hill, I put my arm around Pablo, acknowledging with him that he certainly was in a sad place, and really needed God’s help. “Pablo, you used to follow God. Don’t you think you are needing him now?”

“Arturo, you’re right, I used to follow God. Maybe another day I’ll return to Him and follow again,” said Pablo. I prayed for him right there, a lost soul in need of a Savior, one so close to a knowledge of God (living next door as our neighbor!) and yet really so far away.

Immanuel, “God with us”, a truth we celebrate each Christmas. What a miracle, that God would take on flesh and come so near to us!

Sometimes at Christmas, more than ever, we sense the darkness that so many of our Awa friends and neighbors live in. They do not understand Immanuel. Just yesterday many of the Awa waited for hours for “Christmas” to arrive (meaning a group bringing bags of animal crackers and candies). But they waited to no avail, as the group stopped at another community first and ran out of the cookie bags. So as dusk descended on Christmas Eve, the people meandered home disappointed, with empty hands. Many such groups come each year, handing out cookies or small gifts; some come with plenty but others come with only a little, not enough to go around.

On Sunday we talked with the Awa who came to church, “You know, you don’t have to wait for groups to bring you “Christmas”; Christmas is Jesus being born, and that has truly happened! You can gather with your family and celebrate together. You can thank God for sending His Son to be born, to later die for us so we can be saved.” Some of the faces in the crowd nodded in agreement, but many looked at me with unbelieving eyes, thinking something along the lines of “This guy says such strange things!” :-) To so many of them, Christmas means little more than a few cookie bags that are soon gone.

There is a joy in our hearts as we celebrate Immanuel—God coming near to us in the form of a baby. There is also a sadness as we see so many who still do not understand. And yet God is not far from them, as Paul said in his sermon in Athens many years ago, “...The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things, and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;...” Acts 17:24-27 NASB

Thank you for joining us across the miles as we stand here, near to the Awa. Please pray with us that the Awa people would come to know Immanuel, the One who has come near to them.

In HIS grip,
Kevin & Kathy