Our Emmanuel – Part 3 – Final

As a final thought around ‘Our Emmanuel’, I want to share a short testimony of how ‘Our Emmanuel’ truly is with us.

When I was fifteen years old, I was invited to a church camp by a christian friend of mine, Ed. Although I had grown up in a Christian home, I was only interested in going to church for the scenery, ‘boys’. LOL. When I got the invitation to go to this camp, I was not that keen to go but my mother ‘encouraged’ (read into that what you will), me to go. I told my friend that I would only go if I went with her, in the car she was traveling in and if I couldn’t, that would be the deal breaker. Ed assured me that I could go with her so I prepared for this church camp knowing she would be with me the whole time.

Just days out from the camp date, Ed rang me to say that she was inviting another friend of hers as well and would I mind going with one of the camp leaders Helen, instead. I was not a happy camper, but I knew I had to go because it was all booked and paid for. When Helen arrived to pick me up for camp, she was very reassuring and made me feel at ease, however inside I was still not happy about the arrangement. What kept my spirits up on the long trip to camp was the fact that when I reached camp, my friend Ed would be there and everything would be ok again. Camp was one hundred and fifty kilometers away from my home.

When we arrived, I looked around for Ed but she had not yet arrived, so I settled into my cabin with several other girls and our dorm leader who was no other than Helen, the lady who drove me to camp. Once I had organized my belongings, I walked up to the car parking area where everyone was arriving but still there was no sign of my friend Ed. I waited for several hours and still no Ed. Dinner time came and went and still my friend Ed had still not arrived. ‘Where was she,’ was all I could think about. Not long after dinner, everyone was called into the assembly hall where an announcement was going to be made.

We all sat down and the camp leader solemnly told us of the news that there had been a serious car accident and some of the team leaders were in a grave condition. It was the car that Ed had been traveling in. The driver was killed, the front passenger was seriously injured and my friend Ed had received serious head injuries. Where I was meant to sit, the girl who took my place also received injuries.

Right then and there in my spirit, I knew God had protected me. God was with me. He had laid out a plan to get me safely to camp because He knew that it would be at this camp I would give my heart solely to Him, and I did.

I have Ed to thank for persisting with me to get me to that camp so I would be in a place where I could truly meet God. I have God to thank for being ‘My Emmanuel’ at that time, and He has certainly been my Emmanuel many times since.

Our Emmanuel. God with us. There are times we see His hand on our lives over the course of our lifetime, but I know there a numerous times we have not even known is protective hand on us. We will see those time played back to us when we get to heaven.

In closing off this three part message on ‘Our Emmanuel’ let us be ones to thank Him for His love and faithfulness every day.

Merry Christmas. He is the reason for the season. He is ‘Our Emmanuel’.

Deb x