Immanuel means God with us. In the birth of Jesus, God proved that He is indeed with us—but I’ve been thinking about where and how we experience God with us. God is omnipresent, so we can experience His presence anywhere, but I want to highlight three places He is particularly evident.

First, we can experience God with us is when we are with a worshipping community. We will sense God’s presence as we gather on Christmas Eve and again on Christmas Day. Jesus promises that where two or three gather in His name, He is there, so it only makes sense that we experience God’s presence in worship.

A second place we experience God’s presence is in reading scripture. Scripture is the Word of God, and Jesus is the Word made flesh, so again it only makes sense that we experience God’s presence when we dig into the scriptures.

Finally, we experience God’s presence in prayer. Jesus promises that when we seek Him, we will find Him, and a key part of seeking Him is simply praying.

It is sometimes said this time of year that “wise men seek him still,” and my encouragement to you is to seek God’s presence in worship, scripture and prayer. I’m confident you will experience Immanuel, God with us.