Our Daily Bread Christmas Edition: For God So LovedSample

No Longer Alone Centuries before Christ was born, God promised through the prophet Isaiah: “The Lord himself will give you the sign: Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel” (Isa. 7:14). Matthew repeats Isaiah’s words as he begins to tell the story of the birth of Christ, and he tells us what the name Immanuel means—“God is with us” (Matt. 1:23). One of the most difficult parts of Christmas for many people is that it has become a family time of celebration. For those who live in broken families, who endure fractured relationships, this only accentuates their pain and aloneness. Even those who have many friends can find themselves feeling alone as those friends go off to spend the holidays with their own families. Christmas, with all its attendant parties and get-togethers, often accentuates our loneliness and longing. If the real Christmas spirit is connected to something God has done for us, then we can still enter into it, even when family ties are weak or severed. For unlike fractured family relationships, Immanuel is not isolated from us. He goes looking for us—in tenements and back alleys; in prison cells, apartments, and condos; in suburbs and mansions; and everywhere in between. The true celebration of Christmas, then, is the understanding that because Jesus is Immanuel, He is the answer to our deepest loneliness. Whatever we may be feeling, the truth is that we are never alone. That is God’s promise. —Dan Schaeffer Those who know Jesus are never alone.