"God is a compassionate God. This means, first of all, that God is a God who has chosen to be God-with-us. . . . As soon as we call God “God-with-us,” we enter into a new relationship of intimacy with him. By calling God Emmanuel, we recognize God’s commitment to live in solidarity with us, to share our joys and pains, to defend and protect us, and to suffer all of life with us. The God-with-us is a close God, a God whom we call our refuge, our stronghold, our wisdom, and even, more intimately, our helper, our shepherd, our love. We will never really know God as a compassionate God if we do not understand with our heart and mind that “the Word became flesh and lived among us” (John 1:14),  (Henri Nouwen) 

What a mystery! What a revelation! We are not alone in our times of sufferings and pain. God-is-with-us in our darkest moments of our human journey. Like the story of the footprints in the sand, when we see only one set of prints, we are called to remember that they belong to God who was carrying us on his shoulder. We are not always aware of his presence at the moment. Only later may he reveal his presence and plan for us in that past experience. As Emmanuel he has committed himself to accompany us on our journey to him. Our role is to stay close to him.