The Advent Calendar - Pt. 4

 

For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, “Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name.” And again it is said, “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.” And again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him.” And again Isaiah says, “The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles; in him will the Gentiles hope.” May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Romans 15:9-13 ESV).

 

Come on… everyone knows that a shiny new red tractor on Christmas morning makes you excited! Well, at least it did this young farmer-in-training. Seriously, children get excited at the coming of the season, and often we might feel a bit of a charge through experiencing their amazement, although the difficulties of facilitating their excitement are often the very things that rob us from knowing the wonder for ourselves. That’s especially true this year. It is harder with the additional concerns of the pandemic effects. The truth is that Christmas ought to provide us with the hope for such excitement. The question is how do we locate that experience amid the distraction and disillusionment of this December, 2020? 

 

The wonder about hope is that just as total darkness can't hold back the light of a tiny flame, so does even the smallest increment of hope provide joy and purpose. The writer of Hebrews helps us with that concept: Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). Don’t miss the parallel between "things hoped for" and "things not seen." It’s certainly a great paradox. Applying "assurance" to something your five senses can't detect is a challenge. However, the truth is that hope, through Christ, is available to us no matter what you see, hear, or feel. It's above your circumstances (cf. Romans 5:3-5).

 

And this hope has nothing to do with expectations. Hope has little to do with our expectations. In fact it is not what our natural minds would conceive. The end of our journey, whenever it shall come, is one of the most improbable experiences imaginable. To think that after all our failures, our good intentions, or our starts and never-finshes we would arrive in a place that is beyond the imagination good and glorious with a place prepared for us specifically by the hand of God for our eternal habitation is crazy! But it is also true; and, merely awaiting the appointed time. Now, that’s better than a red tractor any day, isn’t it!