The Hope of Christmas

See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight — indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.                                                                               Malachi 3:1

There are many sources of hope. We can find hope in our work, or in the words of a favorite philosopher or prophet, or in beautiful music. But there is something different about the hope we find in Jesus Christ.  As we anticipate the feast of the Incarnation on December 25^th, our hopes become deeper. We allow ourselves to wonder what God has in store for us and for the world. It is as though God is calling us to something deeper, something more than the “everyday” hopes we have for our lives.

As we begin to recall those familiar scenes of shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night or to envision choirs of angels bursting into song over dark starry skies, I feel God nudging the world to something deeper, something more profound. The hope we experience every year as we wait expectantly in Advent for the signs of the star, we experience more deeply God’s hope for each one of us. It is a hope and the flicker of the knowledge that God is in the midst of us, not just today, but has been forever and will be forever.

Look for hope today; ask what God might be asking of you.
                                                                                         

·        Is it to go deeper?

·        Is it to seek God more fully?

·        To serve God more faithfully?

The “Christmas spirit” is not about tinsel and lights and presents; we only wish it were that easy, but these things are not what we really yearn for. We yearn for connection; a connection with the living God who accompanies us always, who seeks to bring us everlasting peace.  

Breathe the spirit of Christmas in – and resolve to send it out into a world in desperate need of hope. Resolve to discover what God is asking of you: to find hope in the midst of pain, to bring hope to those who have no hope, to be the bearer of the Good News to those who haven’t seen it lately.

May the spirit of the living God be in you and among you and alive through you in this time of waiting and expectation.