Home, chapter 2. Emmanuel. The Hebrew word means, "God is with us." That is a shattering thought and I confess I cannot wrap my head around it very well. But I think it is important to try. Why? Because if it is really true that the Creator of the universe is presently available to you and me; if He is knowable and relatable; if wants to enter into an intimate relationship with His creatures, then that changes everything about what is important in life. The idea that God is present and intimately familiar with everything about me, yet still pursues me to worship Him, that is both terrifying and comforting to my broken human soul. Terrifying because I am fully and completely known - all my flaws, all my supposedly covered up, messed up, ways of relating to myself, to others and even to God Himself. I'm completely and utterly busted, exposed. Comforting because even though He knows me so thoroughly, Christ has so perfectly paid for all my failure to love God, others and myself well that I can rest in His forgiveness and acceptance of me. He has pursued me when I did not pursue Him. I would like to live every day with that awareness of both the terror and the comfort of knowing God. Yet I find myself so busy with the everydayness of getting through life I don't stop often enough to think about what it is really like to have God with me. Have you thought about what a difference that would make in your moment by moment existence to be conscious that God is imminently present with you? I need to think about that more. I invite you to do the same.