His name is Immanuel
The Lord, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth
And formed the human spirit within. Zechariah 12:1
Read Isaiah 7:10—16
Immanuel. God with us. There was just once when the New Testament writers picked up this name, quoted this verse, and said what a good fit it is for Jesus at his birth.[1] Just once! Yet it’s such a great name for Jesus. It is a wonder it was not used more, right through the New Testament, even more than ‘Christ.’ Jesus Immanuel. Jesus, the one who is Immanuel. Lots of little babies have been named Immanuel, some of them, surely, to hold before the child, as he grows, the assurance that God is with us. This evening, so close to Christmas, God speaks his very closeness to me, as though the name of this child is my own name too. God declares his closeness to me and mine to him as I call Jesus by his name, Immanuel.
Immanuel, Lord Jesus, Immanuel. You are God with us, born to a humble virgin, to be with us, to be with me; to, by your very coming, remove from me the whole dreadful plight of separation from God, loneliness from God, and with it the loss of my own true existence. In you I have my true place. In you I am in the presence of God. As communion. As found company. As one dear to him. In you I am at home. In you I am at home to myself. In you I am my true self. This has been won for me. It took the journey you made to the far country to bring me to this place. But having been brought here, I see now that this place is your own place, God with us.
[1] Matthew 1:23