Their mother welcomed them with open arms and named them Jesus and Emmanuel. Emmanuel means “God with us.” But is God really with us when bad or abnormal situations happen? Our primal instinct may call those babies “freaks” or “other” and wants to eliminate or avoid them.
“Other” will be different for each of us. For the military general, it might be the granola-eating peace-loving hippy. For the University Professor it might be the lumberjack. For many it might be someone with Down syndrome or special needs.
We lock our doors and turn the other way. Yet as a Christian I see Jesus’ radical preference for rejected outsiders, which infuriated the religious leaders.
To embrace someone that is different from us, you have to get out of your comfort zone, walk towards that person and trust that “God is with us.”
Music Transforms You 