Now through the end of December, a chance to re-examine the gifts of Advent, the arrival of a Savior, and the epiphany of Epiphany.
Romans 8:24b-25 Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
We know what it is to hope. The lists that require it grow longer this season, and this year in particular hope is a precious commodity. We also know what it is to wake up during this season tired, frazzled and tapped out.
Hope is as integral to our humanness as taking our next breath, but we don’t often think about it as something to nourish. In fact, sometimes it’s easier to kill our hope because it so often disappoints. We continue to breathe, and walk, and talk, and go to work and church while seeking to fill that place of deep disappointment with shallow thrills – food, drink, laughter, entertainment, pleasure, power, pleasing – things we can ‘control’ when the larger questions of life overwhelm.
Paul says our hope must be patient. Advent hope is filled with longing for a kingdom that we only glimpse before our longings are thwarted. We are confronted with the question of whether to press on or turn away for what satisfaction can be found without deep and painful longing and costly hope. Christ has come, and in his advent, heaven broke into earth in a new way. The kingdom is here, all around us, but we must choose patient hope when we cannot see.
Prayer: Giver of good gifts, help us pursue the hope your advent promises, regardless of human hopes and dreams that disappoint.
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