Emmanuel – God is with us

Not an idol, nor an idea, nor a hunch or theory, but truly and genuinely, the eternal God. He was born as an infant from the Ever-Virgin Mary. The feast of His birth—so far as we know—is called Božić (Little God) or Bogić (Little God) only in the Serbian language among all the languages of the world. Just as a king’s son might be called kraljević (prince) or an emperor’s son carević (emperor’s son), the Serbs from ancient times have called the Son of God Božić. Thus, the day of His birth was named by the Serbs based on the essence or nature of the One born on that day—Božić. How wonderful, and how full of understanding and graceful reasoning!

Often, the terminology of the people assists theology, making it easier to comprehend the great dogmas of our faith. The pre-eternal Son of God appeared in the flesh as the child of God, as the Little God; though God from God, Light from Light, of one essence with the Father and co-eternal with the Father, yet, in the flow of time, small because of the body and in the body—Božić.

When the Jews asked the Lord Christ who He was, they received the answer: The Beginning. Indeed, He is the beginning of creation, the beginning of renewal, the beginning of reason, the beginning of all good and glorious things. The dogma of His incarnation is the foundational dogma of our faith in the sense that through it, all the other great dogmas are revealed and understood. Just as a spotlight in the night dispels darkness in all directions and casts light on unseen objects, making them visible, so faith in Emmanuel—that is, faith in the present God, God in the flesh among the fleshly—sheds light on the mysteries of heaven and earth, making the dark bright, the distant near, the incomprehensible comprehensible, and the prophesied fulfilled.

The beginning of wisdom, joy, light, and the fullness of life is Emmanuel, which means God is with us. And when God is with us, who can be against us? That is why the Church of God sings with rapture and triumph:
"God is with us; understand this, O nations, and submit, for God is with us!"

God is with us—this is the first thing we must keep in mind at the dawn of the New Year. This is the first condition for happiness in the New Year. May it be a blessed one for us!

St. Nikolai Velimirovich
On Christmas, 1939