God With Us
By Krissy Kirby
Very soon, a great man will come to visit us, bringing joy to all. Given
the nature of this e-book, I’m guessing you think I’m talking about
the coming of the newborn Jesus Christ. But I’m actually talking
about Santa Claus! The jolly old man himself, bringing loads of goodies
on his sleigh to the girls and boys on his twice-checked list. Yes,
indeed. What else is special about Christmas? It is interesting to see
the secular meaning of Christmas intersect with the glorious birth of
our Savior to yield a sort-of confused holiday. The world seems to
forget that during this season of Advent when Catholics are preparing
their hearts to welcome Jesus on the 25th, many are just preparing
themselves to welcome elves and anxiety. This year in particular, I
have had to take a step back from all the noise and busyness, and
enjoy the peace and joy of this Advent season. Can we still find God
with us?
In Matthew 1:23, Joseph is visited by an angel to fulfill what the
prophets had written, “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and his name shall be called Emmanuel” (which means, God with us).
Joseph had extraordinary faith to believe that Mary was filled with the
Holy Spirit and that he would care for the One who was being sent to save the world. This was no small feat for a simple carpenter, but Joseph understood the importance of Christ’s birth.
This last part of this passage, the words God with us, caught my ear when I first read it, and reminded me of a Theology class from freshman year in college. We learned that in order to redeem the world from Original Sin, God had to dwell among us on earth. God could only do that by becoming fully Divine and fully Human, and only through a stainless virgin could Jesus be stainless himself. The world has truly been saved because of a small child, born in a stable and laid in manger over 2,000 years ago. Each year we have 4 weeks to ready ourselves for his arrival again. The joy of the season is not packages, ribbons, and bows, it’s realizing that God is here to love us and save us.
In my classroom, we have an elf named Chester who comes to visit during the weeks of Advent. He arrived on the first day back from Thanksgiving break, and we have found him in a new spot every morning. According to the book he brought with him called, Elf on the Shelf, he returns to Santa to relay messages about whether or not the kids in my class were naughty or nice each day. Based on this report, my students will have a visit from Santa on Christmas morning. What if instead of Santa visiting us with things, we visited God with full hearts and open arms? Although Chester the Elf is here throughout Advent and will disappear after Christmas, God is always with us.