God’s limitless love for us is so big—yet it fit n a tiny manger. “This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:18).

Mary’s baby boy was born in a manger in Bethlehem, and hope was born on earth. “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ ” (1:22–23). Jesus is Immanuel—God with us. God proved your value to Him once and for all through Immanuel.

Immanuel doesn’t mean “us with God.” Immanuel means God with us. God pursued you. He came to seek you and to save you. He became flesh to be “with us.” He allowed Himself to be wrapped in swaddling clothes to be “with us.” He walked solitary paths in dusty sandals, felt hunger and pain to be “with us.” He rode the crest of tumultuous waves and tasted the salt of His own tears at Lazarus’s tomb—because to weather storms and endure loss are part of being “with us.” His hands touched lepers, and His back carried our cross so He could be with us.

The God who loves you is with you. He came to be with you because we need a “God with us.” We are unable to be with Him . . . without Him. He initiates companionship. He draws us to Himself. He pursues us tenderly.

Many world religions have gods who demand “us with god.” Work. Strive. Please. Clean up. Try harder. Be better. Pursue. Then, just maybe, that god will be with us. Christianity has the one true God, who seeks to be with us and makes it possible for us to be with Him. Any requirements for us to be with God were met by Jesus. Through Christ, we are reconciled with God (Colossians 1:19–22).

The Son of God is the Son of Man, who came to be with you, to seek you, and to save you. “For the Son of Man is come to save that which was lost,” Matthew tells us (18:11 NASB). Receive and respond to His loving pursuit today, and find the compassion and companionship you long for.