Christmas Hope
Advent season begins this week, which means Christmas is coming! The most wonderful time of the year! Or so they say. The four weeks of Advent anticipate the birth of Christ. “Advent” means “coming.” There is one month in the Advent calendar and five candles in the wreath, representing peace, love, joy, hope, and the center candle, Christ. Looking back to the time just before Christ’s birth, there was great anticipation; it was a time of greatly heightened hope. God’s people shared a palpable longing for Messiah. Though, as a nation, they did not recognize or accept Him, He has fulfilled hope for peace, love, joy. He has also brought hope amid hopelessness for over 2,000 years. Hope is an undeniable Christmas theme!
Nonetheless, Christmas hope somehow gets counterfeited this time of year. This false hope gets focused on things like the materialistic frenzy we call “Black Friday.” In previous years, maniacal crowds (who have curiously missed the fact that they could do their shopping online) camp out overnight, risking physical injury to fight for the last latest smart TV. Instead, they could have ordered the same thing on Amazon Prime for less with two-day free shipping.
Then there’s the little child whose Christmas hope is dashed without the latest tech toy, gadget, or cuddly gizmo popular this Christmas. If they don’t get it, the kid will undoubtedly be an outcast; emotionally scarred for life.
I remember my wish for a set of drums at about age 12. Just a small one would have sufficed. But since I only received a snare drum, my life’s path was undeniably rerouted. I remember my sense of Christmas hope fading with the lack of drums. But despite my immature and shallow understanding of hope, I made the most of the snare drum and played in my middle school concert band. Not exactly a fulfillment of my hopes to play in a rock band.
With what’s happening in the world today, ask the typical person on the street to express their “Christmas Hope” (the ones not offended by the term “Christmas”) and chances are they might say they want “peace.” But of course, if pressed to explain, the person would likely talk about things like “world peace” or “less gun violence.” Of course, we need more of such peace, as we know. But when asked how we attain this “peace,” the secular solutions would run the typical humanistic gamut of whatever the limited mind of man can conjure up.
Of course, worldly prescriptions for peace ignore the only true hope: the Prince of Peace. It would be the same drill for solutions concerning the world’s need for joy, love, or hope in general. The world seeks soothing reassurance through the shallow lyrics of a John Lennon song or self-medication. They find only the elusive emotional versions of those things meant to be profound, abiding qualities of life. But the real thing is only available through the One who is Love, the Prince of Peace; the One who brought great joy to the world and gave hope that does not disappoint.
Yes, Christmas is a season of hope. We, as Christians, have an opportunity to help people redirect their hope away from the counterfeit to the King. He is the One Who came and is coming soon; we celebrate His Advent when God took on flesh. We also look forward to His Second Advent. There is no shortage of hope in that!
Are you prepared to take the world’s circumstances and explain to someone this year why they should look to Jesus for hope, peace, love, and joy? ’Tis the season! It is the rare time of year that we have the world’s attention, albeit somewhat distracted by the wrong kinds of hope. But the bottom line is this: For the most part, they still celebrate Christmas! So, look for opportunities to share the Hope born that first Christmas.
“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” —Hebrews 10:23