Screwed

The home has many names. Mansion, abode, pad, domicile, condo, shanty, roost, etc. Currently mine is what’s gently known as a fixer-upper. There’s a list hanging on the cork board of everything I’d like to see done by the end of this year. As I am a card carrying member of the procrastinator’s club, things aren’t looking too speedy.

One piece of equipment I rather enjoy using is a power drill.  There’s something satisfying about hearing the trrrrrrrr-sqhhhh of a well placed screw.  Putting in new porch steps is infinitely faster with power tools instead of hand tools.  Dyslexia and a drill cam are not always the best mix. I was pretty sure I over torqued one of mine so I went looking for the instruction manual to see if I could get it fixed. I couldn’t find it. Anywhere. It’s vanished. Vaporized by a house that snuffs out important papers like a cheap candle.

Plan B: use the other drill. Unfortunately my hard head wouldn’t use Plan B right away. Since the paper copy of the instructions had disappeared into the ether, I went to YouTube. Sure enough, there were plenty of videos to select from for my situation. I watched two. The red drill is dead. I went with Plan B.  Mission accomplished in under two hours with the green drill.

Many people, including myself, are visual learners. We can plunk down for hours with written directions and still not achieve the desired outcome. Give us something that shows hands on and we can follow that to the end. My Bible has all kinds of cool charts and graphs and maps. Sometimes they’re helpful, sometimes they’re distracting. A chart featured at the beginning of each book is Key Themes. For Matthew, there are seven listed.

The first Key Theme is Portrait of Jesus. Jesus is the true Messiah, Emmanuel (God incarnate with His people), Son of God, King of Israel, and Lord of the church.  For the sake of this random thought I don’t need the other six but it’s page 1817 if you’re interested.  Jesus seems to have as many names as our homes but one of His is only used three times in the entire Bible: Emmanuel. God with us. It appears in Isaiah 7:14 and 8:8 and is then confirmed in Matthew 1:23.

The prophecy from Isaiah that pops up in the birth narrative of Matthew has mostly relegated this title of Christ to the Christmas season. It’s very seldom that I hear it outside of the post Thanksgiving to New Year window. There’s a pretty cool song called Emmanuel that pops up around Christmas time, also. For something so awe inspiring and miraculous as “God with us” why have we made this decision to limit our theological study of the concept to His birth only?

Is Emmanuel any less when we’re stuck in traffic? Is Emmanuel not sufficient in the doctor’s office? Is Emmanuel less important when we get that raise or promotion? We have gotten so caught up in the visual of Emmanuel Christmas Baby, we have not fathomed Emmanuel God With Us on the daily. It has become just words in a book to be read once a year and not a Person to be worshiped.

Emmanuel has become a manual.

The Bible is the living word of God. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” The word of God can not be all of this if it is not with us. There is no way to pierce and discern from another location. God does not do social distancing.

God has given us a fantastic visual on how to live a holy life in His word. If it does not come alive to us, it’s no better than an instruction manual; an archaic lists of do’s and don’ts to bring stress and false piety. We must become the YouTube video version of the Bible. We must show Emmanuel in our daily actions. If God is truly with us there will be no plan B. The true believer doesn’t need a 30 day trial period of faith to see how it goes before they cancel.

My rotting porch steps could have brought a lot of harm if I had left them unattended.  They are a daily necessity for entering and exiting my house.  To keep that function of my house alive, I had to make repairs. My way of going about that didn’t work out, but after consulting those who know best, the task was completed. I wasted a good bit of time and a couple of screws trying to go my way with it.

The same is with my faith walk. If I choose daily to go with whatever scheme I come up with, I’m nothing more than dried out pages of a lost instruction guide. My eyes have to remain on Emmanuel, God with us, every day otherwise I’m screwed. In a time of online church we need to be even more vigilant to be in the Word of God for our own spiritual home upkeep.  The world is watching.

Will we relegate Emmanuel to the realm of Christmas Christians? Or will we live and move and have our being as if we truly believe God with us?