Moment of Meditation: Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14)

"Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and you will call His name Immanuel."
(Isaiah 7:14)

Immanuel

Isaiah prophesies that a virgin will conceive and bear a son. What a preposterous notion! Being pregnant and still a virgin? Impossible! In the story where our meditation takes place has God testing King Ahaz for a sign from God. Anything he wants. Ahaz refuses so God gives one anyway. A sign that cannot happen unless God makes it happen.

How fitting that the Messiah would be brought forth from a virgin and given the name Immanuel. A name which means "God with us" in Hebrew. A sign that could only come from God, the Lord and Giver of Life. The child born of the virgin, as it is said in St. Luke's Gospel, "will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High" (1:32).

So there's Jesus--God in the flesh, God with us. Immanuel. God with us to take away our sins. Born a baby in a stable and laid in a manger. Born a baby to die a man on the Cross for the forgiveness of our sins. Jesus truly is Immanuel--God with us. Amen.