Hope springs eternal.

With just a couple days left until we officially celebrate Christmas, my mind turns to the whole specter of hope.  Hope ~ a feeling of expectation that something will happen.  Yes, hope. The Messiah was the epitome of hope for the entire world—indeed, the Jewish people endured persecution, enslavement, and captivity, their light never going out because they held to the hope of the Messiah. 

Part of the beauty of the Advent—the time of preparation—for the birth of the Christ Child is the feeling of hope that is sparked within us.  His own know the feeling is inextricably linked to the Savior, but even the world who does not claim Christ, holds its breath with a bit of hope right now . . . hope that mankind is still good, that war will be ended, the hungry will be fed, that wrongs will be righted, that the jobless will find work, and the homeless will find a home.  Hope – you can feel it in the air, can’t you?

But hope is just an ethereal intangible unless it is tethered to something sure and true . . . something of substance.  In a few days, our gaze may no longer be fixed on the Christ child, as the celebration will be over, but Christ will yet be the reason to hope.  He came to earth as a fulfillment of that which was promised; he died a tragic, though purposeful death, and then overcame the grave—is there any greater fulfillment of hope than that?  And then, my dear ones, he will come again to collect his own, who will then know hope made perfect in eternity with God.

Hope springs eternal in the human breast;

Man never is, but always to be blest:

The soul, uneasy and confin'd from home,

Rests and expatiates in a life to come.1

The writer of Hebrews penned, “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”2

And David, a man after God’s own heart, wrote,

“No one whose hope is in you

will ever be put to shame, Show me your ways, O Lord,

teach me your paths;

 guide me in your truth and teach me,

for you are God my Savior,

and my hope is in you all day long.

   Remember, O Lord, your great mercy and love,

         for they are from of old.

 Remember not the sins of my youth

and my rebellious ways;

according to your love remember me,

                           for you are good, O Lord.3

Hope does indeed spring eternal, because true hope is inextricably linked with the heart and person of God. 

Merry Christmas . . . Christine

1 Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man, Epistle I, 1733

2 Hebrews 6.19

3 from Psalm 25