Now it came about in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Aram and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not conquer it. When it was reported to the house of David, saying, “The Arameans have camped in Ephraim,” his heart and the hearts of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake with the wind.

Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway to the fuller’s field, and say to him, ‘Take care and be calm, have no fear and do not be fainthearted because of these two stubs of smoldering firebrands, on account of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and the son of Remaliah. Because Aram, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has planned evil against you, saying, “Let us go up against Judah and terrorize it, and make for ourselves a breach in its walls and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,” thus says the Lord God: “`It shall not stand nor shall it come to pass. For the head of Aram is Damascus and the head of Damascus is Rezin (now within another 65 years Ephraim will be shattered, so that it is no longer a people), and the head of Ephraim is Samaria and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you will not believe, you surely shall not last.’”

Then the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, “Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God; make it deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!” Then he said, “Listen now, O house of David! Is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God as well? Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:1-14

While the names of God are many throughout Scripture, my favorite one to say in the hustle of a busy day or in the heartache of a hurting moment or really just in any moment at all is Immanuel, a name that means, “God with us.”

It was both a name and a sign given by God through the prophet Isaiah to a people whose hearts shook like the wind before their fiercest enemies. It was a sign given to a besieged group of people who had a host encamped around them, with no help in sight, and no deliverance in the making. It was a sign given by a good and loving God who wanted to assure His people that in their deepest need and direst straits He was not just for them but with them.

Have you ever needed a sign in a time like that? At a time when the word cancer first encroached on the battlefield of your heart or of someone you loved? At a time when you lost a friend, or a spouse, or a child? At a time when you or a loved one deeply and darkly failed and there didn’t seem to be a way up and out into deliverance? At a time when you were in financial need, wondering if tomorrow would hold another paycheck or another meal?

It’s into situations like this that God gives us His sign and speaks to us His Name.

Most often, the sign does not come to us when we are quietly sipping our coffee in our early morning or late evening Scripture-reading routine. Nor does the sign come when our souls well up with hallelujahs in church choruses or choirs. The sign does not come to us when we make the right decisions at the right moment in the abundant seasons of life. God comes to us at precisely the moment when our hearts fail and the wind shakes the remaining leaves off of our barren, wintery hearts.

When our world is rocked with pain, terror, destruction, or fear, the sign of Immanuel comes.

And He comes to us wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger (Luke 2:12). He comes to us in baby’s breath, in fragile vulnerability, as a suffering servant and a bleating lamb. He lays His life down in the very darkest of places of our suffering so that we can pick Him up in comfort and hope and behold Immanuel with us, our God-made-man.

He comes as a sign to the suffering one, the lonely one, the widowed one, the aching one, the fearful one, the barren one, the single one, and the married one. He comes. To put all of our broken pieces back together.

So often, we want a God who remains in the heavens, waves a wand, and fixes our brokenness without messiness. But while wand-waving might mend a circumstance, it will not heal the heart. That’s not how He came, and that’s not how He comes. He comes as a God who is with us. He doesn’t examine our brokenness from afar but walks, dwells, and abides with us, restoring our souls. And it is only for those who have the humble hearts to receive Him, who are needy enough to let Him enter into their broken world instead of pretending they have enough strength to hold it all together, that the name of Immanuel becomes sure footing on which to stand.

One day, Immanuel will dwell with us, putting all of our pieces back together, making everything right that is wrong. But now, in the day-to-day, He comes to be with us, mend our broken hearts through His broken body, and hold us closely with his broken hands.

The sign is this: against every invading army, every blackest night, every hopeless circumstance, He will come, and His people will prevail. How do we know that He will come? Because He came. He came as the helpless baby born into poverty, He came as the Suffering Servant who took away our sin, and He will not fail to come again as the Son who rises with healing in His wings and gives His people peace (Malachi 4:2; Revelation 19:19-21).

Until then, in the quietness of every moment, whisper His name, remember His sign, and prepare your heart for the God who comes. He is not just for you, He is with you. And His coming is sure.

To help you prepare for Immanuel this Christmas season, join me in reading my new Advent devotional, Prepare the Way.