Emmanuel: God with us
One of my favourite names for Jesus is from Isaiah, "Emmanuel" . This, as Matthew's Gospel explains (Matthew 1: 23) means "God with us" . I like the name Emmanuel because I find comfort in its meaning. I believe that in Jesus' coming, God comes to live among us. That is good news. It means that even when life is dreadful we are not alone. God is with us, God has come, is always coming and will come to save. I realise that I would not find the idea of 'God with us' comforting if I did not believe that 'God is love'. What if your concept of God is of an entirely vengeful, destructive being, always looking for ways to punish people? Or if that is your gut feeling about God, so that when something bad happens in your life you think, 'what have I done to deserve this?' During WW2 Nazi military uniform belt buckles had a design of an eagle symbol perched on a swastika. Over this was inscribed the words, 'Gott mit uns', the German...