Hope

I wanted to write something on hope, one of the leaders at our church at the carol service on Sunday spoke on hope, it was great, it really is important and so relevant to this time of year, to me, now, to anyone, anytime. So I have borrowed some of what he said.

It says in proverbs that hope deferred makes the heart sick. Without hope we get sick.

It is hard to hope on a Wednesday afternoon with just me and the baby, it is hard to hope on a Monday morning when you have to go to the job you hate, it is hard to hope when there is sickness, death and tragedy around, it is hard to hope when relationships break down or finances are bad, or when the future is so uncertain and we don't know where we are going or what we are going to do.

But, hope is what gets all of us through all of these situations, it is hard to see, it is hard to distinguish between all the frustration and pain, but it is the looking to the future, the getting up again, the planning, the smile, when we don't feel like it, the struggling through, because we feel there is something more on the other side of the next hill, and when it is just another hill, it is hope again that keeps us going over that one.

I believe in the bringer of hope, that is what Jesus was and is and will always be, the bringer of hope, to all, that is a gift He brings, hope and the fact that whatever I am doing, He is with me, like the old footsteps in the sand poem. I am not immune to all of the above moments of struggle and pain, I just have the bringer of hope with me, every step of the way.

This is Christmas, when we remember that hope entered the world.

Isaiah 9
To Us a Child Is Born
1 Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan-
2 The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death [a]
a light has dawned.
3 You have enlarged the nation
and increased their joy;
they rejoice before you
as people rejoice at the harvest,
as men rejoice
when dividing the plunder.
4 For as in the day of Midian's defeat,
you have shattered
the yoke that burdens them,
the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor.
5 Every warrior's boot used in battle
and every garment rolled in blood
will be destined for burning,
will be fuel for the fire.
6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor,
[b] Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David's throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty
will accomplish this.