Immanuel means ‘God with us.’ And not in the sense that God just showed up or arrived on the scene. A thousand times no.

In spite of the fact it changed everything, the birth of Jesus didn’t technically create a new reality for God or us; rather, it was simply and straightforwardly an emphatic restatement of what had and has always been true. God has always been and will always be ‘with us.’

God could be no other place. Jesus said as much when he, just before his death grew reflective with those closest to him, saying, “When you have seen me, you have seen the Father.”

In other words, Jesus was not the ‘good cop’ of a complex ‘good cop/bad cop’ effort by the triune Godhead or a fraction of that Godhead doing reconnaissance for the other two. Instead, He was simply and profoundly the visible image of the invisible God, a sheet thrown over the ‘invisible man’ revealing what had always been true.

God can never be closer or farther from us. God is. Just is. With us. In us. Through us. Beyond and above and beneath and beside and below us. Defying and transcending the attempts of any and all prepositions, God is and has always been and will always be inseparably one with everything.

This time of year (just like the Incarnation/the life of Jesus) does not make that truth more real. It does though help us focus and see that truth more clearly. And relish and enjoy it more fully.

John 14:7 Jesus said, “If you had known me, you would have known the Father. But from now on, you do know him, and you have seen him.”

8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father. That is all we need.”

9 Jesus replied: “Philip, I have been with you for a long time. Don’t you know who I am? If you have seen me, you have seen the Father. How can you ask me to show you the Father?”