What does "WITH" mean to you?

 

With.

It's not a very exciting word, is it? With is a preposition, and a preposition's job is to show the relationship between a noun or pronoun and other words in a sentence. 

"Come with me to the store."

If you're like me, your focus is on the who and the where in this example. Most of us don't even notice the word with when we read it.

Recently it's gained more attention, mainly because it's being used at the end of the sentence rather than as a connector to other words. 

"Come with," or "Do you want to go with?"

As a writer, this trend bugs me, but proper usage of the word is not what this post is about. Today, I want to share how the word with has become incredibly meaningful to me lately. 

Let's start in Genesis. 

When God made Adam and Eve, he walked with them in the garden (3:8). God's desire has always been to have fellowship and relationship with us, but sin gets in the way. Adam and Eve sinned when they disobeyed God's command not to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Their shame made them hide from God when they heard him walking in the garden. 

BUT...

The relationship between God and man will be fully restored according to Revelation 21:3:

"Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God."

In Luke 23:43, while Jesus is hanging on the cross, he says this to the criminal next to him:

"I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."

Thankfully, we don't have to wait until then to have a relationship with God. Matthew 1:23 says:

"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel--which means 'God with us.'"

Wow! 

God loves us so much that he wants to be with us. Jesus left heaven and came to earth to be with us. While he was here, Jesus....

• ate with us. 
• sat with us. 
• talked with us.
• prayed with us. 
• walked with us. 
• cried with us.
• laughed with us.
• did life with us. 

Yes, he did those things with the people who lived back then, but "us" also means you and me. Before Jesus returned to heaven, he said:

 "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 28:20)

In John 14:16, he said:

"I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever -- the Spirit of Truth."

And in Acts 1:5, Jesus tells the disciples:

"...you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."

So...in a nutshell:

God was with Adam and Eve in the garden.

Jesus was with the disciples and all of humanity on earth.

The Holy Spirit is with us now. 

We will be with God on the new Earth for all eternity. 

I think "with" is my new favorite word!

Blessings, 

~Michelle