Christmas fellowship and ‘Immanuel’
Originally appeared on spirituality.com.
Many years ago, not long after my husband, Richard, and I were married, we found ourselves with very little cash at Christmastime. Rich was unemployed, and my salary was stretched thin to pay not only regular living expenses, but a great deal of debt.
The company where I worked had recently hired a consultant, and he’d moved to our community with his wife and baby. Since they were new in town, we invited them to share Christmas with us.
As the holiday approached, I became concerned that we would be unable to provide any kind of meal for them beyond the meager supplies in our pantry. We didn’t even know if we could afford a tree to make the house more festive. But as a student of Christian Science, I was confident that the joyful expression of Christmas that filled my heart would help me find spiritual solutions.
I soon remembered something from the book of Isaiah in the Bible. It was the prophecy that a Saviour, Immanuel, would come during a time of great darkness for the Israelites. Later on, after this promise was fulfilled in Jesus’ birth, the New Testament book of Matthew defines Emmanuel as “God with us" (Matt. 1:23). This had always been a holy promise for me as well; a certain expectation of God’s ever-presence filling me with hope. What a reassurance to know that at this time of financial uncertainty in my life, God’s love was still present, and that my husband and I would be provided for, too.
Every day, as Christmas drew closer, I prayerfully challenged fearful thoughts through considering God’s “unspeakable gift” of the birth of His beloved son (II Cor. 9:15). I reasoned that the same divine Love that brought this gift of the Christ to mankind was still active today, and that I could count on it to lift me out of the fear that we wouldn’t have enough to make our guests feel welcome. I knew that once my thinking was not preoccupied with images of lack, I could more readily respond to divine inspiration that would lead me to a creative solution.
Then, on Christmas Eve, I realized so clearly that I had nothing to fear, even though there were only a few dollars left in our checking account. In the late afternoon, in a terrible blizzard, Rich and I decided to head out to purchase a tree and something for Christmas dinner. At the grocery store, just a few minutes before closing, we found that the deli was selling many of its fresh items at a fraction of their cost because they wouldn’t last until they reopened two days later. And at a tree lot down the street, we found a beautiful spruce for next to nothing.
Once at home, with the wind howling, and the snow piling up, we gratefully decorated our tree and planned our holiday meal. But the story doesn’t end there. Since our funds were so minimal, Rich and I had decided not to give each other any gifts. But when we woke up Christmas morning, a precious present awaited us both: a brilliant blue sky and two feet of sparkling white snow. There was no traffic, no wind, not a sound, nothing to mar the pristine winter beauty.
And when our friends arrived a few hours later, we ushered them into our home, and out of the cold. My colleague promptly fell into a chair next to the fireplace and went to sleep while his wife helped my husband and me prepare dinner in the kitchen. Later, as we sat down to dinner, my colleague thanked us for an hour of refreshing, uninterrupted rest – a true luxury with a baby in the house! The fellowship we shared continued throughout the meal.
To me, the wonderful satisfaction of every need being met is the true meaning of Christmas and the fulfilled promise of “Immanuel.” This promise still lives in my heart today.