~ He is Near ~

My family and I watch "The Nativity Story" before Christmas each year, much like any other family of the Christian faith. However, this year I watched it with a new understanding I think. I felt like I understood Mary on a deeper level. How must it feel to be chosen by God? She was an average teenager. Not average as in today's world, but in her world. She had feelings too. She thought and had her own personality. I felt like I knew her. Also, in the first part, when Zechariah - the father of John the Baptist - heard God's voice in the temple, I got a chill. What must it feel like to hear the voice of God? It made me realize, God is not far from us. He is close enough for us to hear his voice, and see his hand. I always seemed to view God as someone out of my reach (as in, so far away I had to pray to talk to him) or something I could not get to. Yes he lives within me, and yes, I see him move, but I never truly have felt so close to him. I know this is a stupid simile, but I want to use it; I viewed God (and I would not have admitted this at the time) like a distant relative, who I would write (pray) to when I needed something, and not when I didn't. But my eyes have been opened once more; God is not a "distant relation," but a constant, holy, sympathetic king, who stands beside me in battle, who stands me up on my feet, and who leads me in the way I must go.
He is near to us.

Matthew 1: 22b - 23:

"All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel”(which means, God with us)."

Merry Christmas.