"One December evening, as their trading ship struggled to make headway across the rough Atlantic Ocean, sailors working for the American United Fruit Company would’ve been shocked to hear a new sound coming from their radio. The usual piercing beeps and dots of Morse code were instead replaced with a quiet violin playing the sweet melody of a Christmas carol, ‘O Holy Night’. This was the first radio broadcast as we know it, and it was recorded by Reginald Fessenden on Christmas Eve 1906, followed by a reading of Luke 2:14: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men”.

 

"‘Immanuel’, written by Michael Card, is packed with powerful reminders of biblical truth that can challenge, comfort and encourage us.

 

It begins with the prophecy that we read in Isaiah 7:14: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

Throughout the song we are reminded, “Immanuel, Our God is with us, and if God is with us, who could stand against us”, which are words found in Romans 8:31. If we pause and fully absorb the meaning of what we are singing, it gives great comfort to know that - if we have accepted God as our Lord and Saviour - God is with us, He is on our side, no matter what we face or who we come up against.