Season of Hope
Happy Holidays. The Christmas season is upon us. Yay! This week kicks off the season of Advent. A time of reflection, celebration and preparation leading up to Christmas. Advent, as it is called is a time to stop and remember the first arrival of Christ Jesus as the babe in a manger and look forward to His second coming and has the triumphant King of Kings. It is a time of Epiphany filled with expectation looking for the appearing of Christ to come, even in our daily lives.
This first week of Advent is the week of hope. Hope is the eyes of the kingdom. Hope gives faith something to lay hold of and bring down from heaven as it were. Hope fills your mind with possibilities of what could be. Then, with faith in the promises of God and confidence in God’s faithfulness you are able to reach into heaven and pull those things down that Hopes sees (see Hebrews 11:1 and Mark 11:22-24).
I like to think of Hope in terms of the first Christmas, cattle lowing, shepherds watching their sheep on a starring night and Angels preparing to announce the birth of Christ. But the reality is, it was actually a very dark time in Israel’s history. The country was under the rule of the Roman empire. Israel had been without a prophetic voice for about 400 to 500 years. That is a pretty hopeless feeling, especially the part of not having a prophetic voice. Then the wind of hope began to blow at the announcement of the birth of the newborn King. The wind blew like whispers from ear to ear to all those who sat in darkness…did you hear that the Christ was born in Bethlehem…? Like in C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, there is a scene in the movie where there is a whisper in the forest that “Aslan is on the move.” So it was in Israel, there was a voice of Hope that had begun to rise up out the shadows that the King of Israel, the anointed Messiah was coming to deliver them from darkness and oppression of their enemy’s. God was truly on the move. Testimonies of people who had witnessed his birth, seen angels, heard songs from the heavens, seen a star in the east begun to travel near and far. Then there is the mention of Anna the widow who waited all her life for the hope of Israel, “….spake of him to all of them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem….” and there is Simeon who was waiting “…for the consolation of Israel” held the baby Jesus in his arms and blessed God. All these events spread like wind carrying dandelion spores across the horizon of the country.
The hearts of people began to be filled with Hope of freedom and deliverance. They began to see a glimmer of light that soon became a flaming torch to light the way for those who were expectant. I encourage to take a moment to ponder those events afresh and let the light of the Gospel begin to ignite the light of hope in your eyes once again and share that hope with others that they may be enriched this holiday season.
That same babe in the manger that brought hope to Israel will give hope to anyone who looks to Him with expectation and confidence.
How can I pray for you?
~pastor Tim