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 7:14
When Mary and Joseph were engaged to be wed, something happened that would change their lives completely. Of course, what we often forget is that the impact that Jesus's arrival would bring had the potential to actually be either completely positive or destructive for the parents-to-be.
I can only imagine Mary being told, "I'm going to give you the son of God, and He's going to be 'Immanuel' or a promise to the whole world that God is with us," and then Mary probably thinking, "Well, that's great for the world, but what's going to happen to me?"
During this time, premarital pregnancy was not only embarrassing but could also mean the end of a mother and her child's life. On top of that, all she had to go on was that she was pregnant because the Holy Spirit gave her a child. So aside from being labeled immoral, people could most likely call her crazy.
And imagine what Joseph must have been going through as well. His fiancee was pregnant with a child that was not his and the choice to have her stoned or have his name stained forever was in his hands.
In all of this, one can only imagine what weight and magnitude the promise of Jesus being "Immanuel" must have been to them. God was not only with the whole world. He was also with Joseph and Mary, and they held on to that every step of the way -- when Mary got pregnant, when they had to travel miles on her due date and when they ran out of rooms when she was giving birth.
Often, we hear God speak to us that He is Emmanuel, that He is "God with us," but what does that do to us? Does it just become another name to add to the many sets of names that Jesus is given? Or does it assure us of the character of God, thus giving us the faith to hope and trust that in every situation, God is indeed with us?
Life can get a little challenging at times, and the world, our circumstance or even our own minds will tell us that God is nowhere near us, but God made it clear that Jesus is our "Emmanuel."
Just before He was taken to heaven, Jesus gave us the promise that "I will be with you until the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:20), solidifying the assurance we have that He is indeed Emmanuel.
