What Do You Need?
We are celebrating the coming of the Christ Child as Emmanuel, the With-Us God.
Since the week before Christmas, I have been encouraging visitors to our home to acknowledge what they need, what their hearts need, and offer it to Jesus, taking in exchange a star with a specific promise of how God With Us is the answer to what we need.
Some have received promises that spoke precisely to the need they had expressed, or confirmed a direction they were thinking of taking. Others read words that seemed to miss the mark, but then discovered that what they had written was not their deepest need, and the promise from the Manger was exactly what they needed.
A few have said, “I can’t think of anything I need,” to which the almost universal response was “Humility!”
I am routinely aware of my need for the Holy Spirit’s empowerment, or the Father’s tender care, or the fellowship of Jesus, but I have been waiting for something specific or long-range or big-picture, to write my need on the little paper gingerbread girl with her heart cut out…something that felt real, true, deep, significant. Finally, last night, I sighed and said, “I don’t know what I need!” and “cheated” selecting a star from the chrome platter that holds the promises.
The words I read were exactly what I did need, about not being afraid of not being qualified, or eloquent or safe, but being directed by the One who sends, commands and rescues. I am being sent to do things in which I am an infant. I fear censure, and rejection.
The usual translation from French into English of the words “O Holy Night” contain this phrase: “He knows our needs; to our weakness no stranger.” He is the ultimate safe space!
I am so glad that He truly came as the With-Us God: Emmanuel.
May you truly know Him as the God who is with you providing all you need in Himself.
Following Jesus every day in the everyday,
Christi
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