do you ever have those moments where really old worship songs pop into your head? like out of nowhere? over 13 years ago at the little sweet church we used to go to in the mountains we sang this song almost every week:
Jesus, name above all names
beautiful savior, glorious Lo-o-o-rd
Immanuel, God is with us
blessed redeemer, living word
there were times, honestly, when it grated on jose and i’s nerves because they played it so s-l-o-w, but this week it came back to me out of the blue. i can’t get this chorus out of my head; i’ve been randomly singing it in the car & on my post-surgery-walks-when-i’m-by-myself. it’s the only part of the song i can remember, but it includes the part that matters to me this christmas. immanuel, God is with us.
God is with us.
God, with us.
here are some different words for “with”:
accompanying, alongside, amidst, among, beside, by, for, including, near, plus, upon, as companion, side by side, in the thick of
God accompanying us.
God alongside us.
God amidst us.
God among us.
God beside us.
God by us.
God for us.
God including us.
God near us.
God plus us.
God upon us.
God as companion to us.
God side by side us.
God in the thick of us.
God, born in a smelly stable to an unwed mother & her faithful fiance. pagans strangly drawn to him like a moth to a flame. shepherds, the lowest of the low, getting the news first. God, in the flesh. showing us the ways of love & how utterly contrary they are to the ways of the world. to the ways of “religion.”
God, here. now. working through the least likely–us. ordinary, average people.
God, with us, in us.
it’s wild.
it’s crazy.
it’s really pretty.
merry christmas.