He gets it (Immanuel)

Christmas is a funny holiday. It's about cookies and trees and stockings and eggnog and beautiful decorations all over the place. It's about traditions and songs and family fun/craziness. All this to celebrate Jesus' birth. I love all of it. Each year I enjoy the fun of putting up decorations and making cookies. At some point, I actually think about the deeper meaning of Christmas and it seems that each year there is a different emphasis in the Christmas story for me. Last year I thought a lot about Mary and her faith.
This year I'm thinking about the whole Immanuel thing. God with us. To me, the phrase "He gets it" sums it up really well. My life has been absolutely crazy this year. It's been exciting and tiring and fun and lonely all at the same time. I was sad to leave Ukraine and really excited to start school at Kennesaw. Seems like life has been a real roller coaster for me. In the midst of it, God has sent lots of reminders that He is with me. I'm not alone.
He gets it. He came to die for our sins, yes, but also he lived. Here on this earth where people hurt each other all the time, where people leave, get sick, or die. Here where he could stub his toe or get a cold or lose a friend. He gets it. Our pain is not a mystery to Him. I've often felt lonely or out of place in America. He gets that. He must have felt really out of place sometimes down here. I've had to watch friends make terrible, self-destructive decisions. That had to have happened to Him. He gets it. He became a human being with all of the problems that being human brings. That's how much He loves us. He can relate to our struggles and temptations because He lived it, not just because He's God and He knows everything. That is what has touched me the most this holiday season. He is Immanuel. He is with me. He gets it.
Merry Christmas everyone!

Fish

My poor fish died a few weeks ago and I thought he deserved honorable mention on my blog. My poor little fish named Fish