Immanuel, we are told means God with us. What did it cost God to become with us? Christ had to consent (or as one hymn puts it, condescend) to enclosure. All the vastness of the creator God had to be enshrouded in that which was created. There had to be a "shrinking down" of infinity to finite-ness. Christ had to condescend and be enclosed by a womb, then...a manger, a family, a community, a people, a finite place in time and history. And He agreed!
What then is asked of us who would seek to become partners in this God-with life today? Enclosure? Do we allow ourselves to mindlessly be caught up in this world and all that it bombards our senses with from the time we rise in the morning until we go to sleep? Or, do we mindfully heed the call to enclosure and choose to rise up before the dawn and pray, to pull ourselves back from all the info-tainment, and seek that quiet place to hear that quiet Voice? If we are honest, we must admit that we feel crowded in by this call to enclosure. We want all this world has to offer. We are uncomfortable with what this God-with life has to offer. Our days are filled with noise, busy-ness, speed, instant gratification. We resist the call to quiet, simplicity, slowing down to meditate, delayed gratification. Humility, solitude, anonymity, service, devotion, meditation, scripture reading, prayer -- we hear the call to these things and yet run in the opposite direction, screaming I don't have time for this!
And then we have the audicity to wonder as we watch the endless stream of violence on the evening news, Where is God in the midst of all this chaotic world?! Where, indeed -- patiently calling us, lovingly wooing us to participate in the God-with-us life. Will we hear? Will we respond? Will we choose to be hidden in the life which is in Christ?
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