Hope – The First
Word of Christmas
It
was a dark and desperate time before the coming of Christ, the Messiah. Sort of like the times we live in now. Taxes were high, greed was rampant, division
among the social classes was escalating.
They were indeed desperate times.
Where
is hope? That was the dominant thought
on many minds in those days. The
scholars and teachers of the law knew hope was promised. But when, and exactly from where. They had a vague idea, but still … they
hoped. And they passed their hope onto
the citizenry.
And
they all hoped.
We
interpret their hope through some phrases in our Christmas songs.
O come, O come Immanuel. A plea.
The hopes and fears of all
the years are met in Thee tonight. A sigh of
relief, and hope.
Sometimes
our hope morphs itself into the desire for some magic wand. Swing the wand and all despair
disappears. Say the magic words and “poof”
… all is right again in our world.
Oh,
that it worked that way.
But
God gave us glimpses of hope. He fulfilled
his promises, as He promised. Only His
timetable was slightly different from the expected.
The
words that came through were words like …
For with God nothing is
impossible.
For unto you is born this
day a savior.
Don’t be afraid. I bring
you good news. When we despair, I suppose fear rides
shotgun, and yet the angels proclaim the opposite.
But
Simon knew something of hope, and even more of waiting. He had been promised a long time ago that his
very eyes would see the promise of hope in the flesh.
He
was in the temple on the day when Jesus was presented for his purification
rites. And he knew he saw HOPE.
His
words:
Holy God, I have seen your
salvation and now I will go peacefully unto death. My eyes have seen your salvation, which is
for all nations; a light to the Gentiles and the culmination of hope for your
people Israel.
(Based
on Luke 2:29-32)
And
so, we start with hope, the first word of Christmas.
I
pray that our hope - yours and mine - extends way beyond what’s under the tree
and in our stockings.
I
pray our hope is grounded on the promises of God.
One
of the great phrase from our seasonal carols is this one, I believe.
Then pealed the bells more
loud and deep
God is not dead, nor does
He sleep
The wrong shall fail, the
right prevail
With peace on earth
goodwill to men
These
are indeed great words of hope!
Merry
Christmas!
P Michael Biggs
Hope Encouragement Inspiration
No comments:
Post a Comment