Hope for Christmas


Christmas is coming.  The lights, adverts, and darker nights are all signs it’s on its way.  I wonder what you are hoping for this Christmas?


We might feel that 2020 has felt, at times, like the end of the world, and I’m sure there are no end of apocalyptic predictions being bandied about, but whatever the circumstances, we can still have hope. This isn’t the sort of hope that comes from wishful thinking and pipe dreams. This is a more certain and confident hope. A hope that comes from belief in something that brings life, something beyond the current circumstances of uncertainty.


As we travel through advent towards Christmas, we may press our faces against car windows looking for sparkling Christmas lights instead of the sparkling sea. As the destination of Christmas Day gets nearer and nearer, maybe we might pause to remember the reason for the season - the birth of a baby, Jesus, the Christ, Our Saviour, Mighty Counsellor, Prince of Peace, God from heaven on earth, one of us. He came so that we might see God and have hope in the future. A future in the Kingdom of God - a Kingdom of goodness, beauty and truth, where there will be no more suffering, conflict or pain, where there will be healing, harmony and peace ... forever.  


Whilst we wait for the fullness of this Kingdom, God gives us the opportunity to accept Jesus as our Saviour and to receive his love. It’s as if the world is groaning, as if in childbirth, for the promise of this new, restored life. Those who choose to follow Jesus can live in certain hope, because they know the promise of God of an eternal life in his Kingdom. As they deal with life’s circumstances today, they live with faith in this as yet unseen promise of tomorrow. God is not absent from the world today. He brings glimpses of his eternal Kingdom, hearing the cries of humanity and our prayers but the fullness of his Kingdom reign is yet to come. The circumstances around us are like mist, obscuring the path and disorienting us.  But if we place our faith in Jesus, our rock of truth, the mist will eventually clear and we’ll be able to see the way clearly again.


So as you prepare for Christmas this year, think again of hope born as a baby, carried not only in his mother Mary’s belly but also in her heart and perhaps you can respond to God’s invitation and receive the hope of Jesus into your heart today.


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