God With a Man

Matthew 1:23---Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

A man suffered greatly. For this man, the idea of God being with us sometimes seemed to be a joke because of His suffering. The man seldom spoke about His plight. No one seemed to care about his suffering because everyone seemed to be too busy with their own lives and their own problems. The man believed in God and struggled to make contact with Him, but the suffering always seemed to get in the way. The man prayed every day but he seldom prayed for himself. In his prayer life, the man always puts others first. The man died a quiet and even blissful death. He was carried to Heaven on the wings of angels and stood with Christ before His new heavenly home. The Lord was about to escort him to his new home when the Lord asked Him to look back at the earth. In an instant, the man saw how his life and suffering had touched the lives and hearts of others. Then he saw how those lives and hearts had touched still others. On and on the touching went. The man finally saw, even when his suffering seemed to beat down the presence of God, that God was not dead. For when God seemed to be dead within him, others were being touched by God because of his suffering. Standing in Heaven, the man saw God was never really dead but was really with the man, and through this man's suffering, God came to be with others.