Dear Friends:

Tomorrow at our Christmas Eve services, as we read the familiar lessons and sing the familiar songs, we will proclaim a message that is deeply countercultural: God is with us.

God is with us not just on one holy night when the shepherds gather around the manger, or when the Magi follow the star to Bethlehem. Whenever and wherever we think about Emmanuel, God is with us, and it’s a holy night.

This promise is not just a one-time, Christmas specific offer. It is a 24/7, 365 day-a-year proposition that, as Christians, we can all believe in and live by to strengthen ourselves, regardless of our circumstances. In my own life, I stand on this message!

God is with us despite the harrowing times we’re in. As we contend with increasing food and gas prices and rising mortgage rates, God is with us. During chaotic pre-Christmas shopping, wrapping, decorating, and cooking, God is with us. Through the senseless epidemic of gun violence on our streets and in our schools, God is with us. While conflict and war rage in Ukraine, Ethiopia, Afghanistan and Haiti, God is with us. God is always with us, in times of exceeding exaltation and depressing despair. All the time.

When we know this in our hearts, we can withstand the loss and change that the world forces on us so relentlessly. We have staying power, against all odds, to do what Jesus taught—to heal the sick, feed the hungry, and welcome the stranger. When we believe that the Prince of Peace came down at Christmas to live and die as one of us, and be raised again on the third day, our lives are transformed.

Beloved, Emmanuel—God with us—walks with us this Christmas and forever.

Christmas peace and blessings,

Bishop Paula Clark

image: “Emmanuel” by the Rt. Rev. Shannon MacVean-Brown, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont