Viola

I have been thinking about Immanuel lately. We use that name a lot during the Advent season, in our scripture readings and Christmas carols. We think of the amazing way that God revealed himself and his presence and nearness through the incarnation. I was thinking, too, of the message of Immanuel that Jesus gave us at the end of his earthly ministry when He proclaimed, "I am with you always, even to the end of the earth."

There are other manifestations of Immanuel that we experience regularly. God is near to us in the lives and needs of those around us. The story of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25: 31ff shows us that in feeding the hungry and in visiting the sick and lonely, we are experiencing Christ. In the Philippines we feel this closeness in daily ways as we reach out to the homeless children that need a place to live and people to love them. We see the face of Jesus in their faces, and it is a great comfort and blessing to us.

But there are other ways that God reveals himself, his nature and his closeness to us. We see him in the lives of saintly people around us. We experience him in community. Yesterday I learned that Viola Carlson, a pillar of our church and one of the finest persons I have ever known, passed away. I think she was 92. She was kind, loving, supportive and faithful. She would come up to me in the church lobby and ask a question about one of our children whom she had been praying for. She wanted updates and reports of answered prayer. She was a pillar of CSC, too, bringing our ministry to the throne of grace regularly. In her life we experienced the nearness of God. Immanuel.