Good morning…
After waking from my second sleep, I re-read our post crafted in the wee hours of Saturday morning, Born To Be With Us. Our blog ended with this truth: “Amid all of the tremendous tragedies we face along our journey, from life through death into eternal life with God, Jesus was born to be beside us.”
In the next moment, I opened the Henri Nouwen meditation for the day. It’s as if God continued our conversation.
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Living In Solidarity by Henri Nouwen from Compassion
As soon as we call God, “God-with-us,” we enter into a new relationship of intimacy with him. By calling him Immanuel, we recognize that he has committed himself to live in solidarity with us, to share our joys and pains, to defend and protect us, and to suffer all of life with us. The God-with-us is a close God, a God whom we call our refuge, our stronghold, our wisdom, and even, more intimately, our helper, our shepherd, our love. We will never really know God as a compassionate God if we do not understand with our heart and mind that “he lived among us” (John 1: 14).
“And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth” (John 1: 14, NIV).
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Now I take God’s grace and truth a step further. “He lived among us,” later gives way to the third strand of the Trinitarian presence.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8, NIV). So, not only did He live among us, from now on, forever, God lives among us.
Romans 15:13 (NIV) amplifies the powerful presence of Immanuel, God-with-us. Day after day. Dark night after dark night. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
As we trust in Him, God’s Holy Spirit gives us the power we need to walk through the joys and pains of life. We live in solidarity with our helper, our shepherd, our love, our compassionate God. In our everyday life, all joy, peace, and hope overflows through us, by the power of the Holy Spirit. With our living Lord as our refuge, our stronghold, our wisdom, we are equipped to live peacefully this intimate, “God-with-us” life.
When we and our loved ones face overwhelming challenges, the question becomes, “Today, how might I trust God with ‘even this’?”
…Sue…
