A Light of Hope
I admit it; I hate to wait. I hate to wait in cashier lines at the grocery store. I hate to wait on hold, I hate to wait in a doctor’s office, and I even hate to wait when my computer takes a mood and goes slower than I think it should. I don’t think I am alone. Many of you are just like me and find waiting annoying and disturbing.
This season is made for us at the beginning of the Church year. This is the season of waiting. It is about waiting for the promise of salvation to be fulfilled. The covenant is His promise. Advent is about standing on tiptoe and believing we have not been abandoned to chaos and strife.
The first candle on the Advent wreath symbolizes hope. It’s not a superficial hope that wants good weather tomorrow or our favorite team to win some big game. It is “gut hope.” Gut hope lives deep inside us and promises that we are not alone. It is a hope that assures us that God knows our name and that our heart is carved from a piece of His own heart. Gut hope trusts in God’s desire to be one with us. Gut hope is so deep within us that we find it hard to find words to capture it.
Gut hope is an overpowering gasp at the birth of a child. It is the brightness of the light of love when an engagement ring is shared. Gut hope is the wonder we feel when God takes one we love home.
It is easy and understandable that we are discouraged. The world we live in is a hot mess. Family and friends fight political battles over candidates we have never met, shared a meal with, dried a tear for, or loved. When injustice occurs, violence is often the first course of action, not the last. Brokenness, nastiness, and fear surround us. Someone drives too slowly or cuts us off, and road rage isn’t met with an ugly word or harsh gesture but a violent exchange with a gun. Many feel isolated and alone as the holidays come. Loneliness embraces far too many people.
As a people, we come into this Advent seeking and wanting more from our leaders in the Church and the world. The Israelites, at the time of Jesus, wanted that too. They knew poverty, slavery, and victimization. They were demoralized and felt abandoned. They were slaves and were mistreated by their own religious leaders. Their burdens were many and heavy. They were sad, hopeless, and alone.
We come into this Advent in a broken world and a fractured nation. We seek peace, respect, understanding, and a world where everyone is honored and respected. We crave oneness. And in the depths of our souls, we crave intimacy and human understanding.
We come. We hope. We hope with a “gut hope” that God will make himself known and fill the darkened corners of our souls. It is the same deep gut hope that pushed the Israelites forward. It is the same hope that pulls us into this Advent season.
God pleads with us to be patient and to ready our hearts. God wants us to examine and reexamine our relationships, motivations, and deepest desires. He is asking us to use our waiting time wisely. To get our lives right with who He has called us to be, who we want to be, who we hope to be.
We light a candle this Sunday for Hope. We believe that in the darkest places in our life and world, a light will come that no amount of discord, unrest, or death will overpower. We light a candle, and we hope, we pray, and we wait. God made a promise, and God keeps His promises.
In God’s Unending Love,
Gwen
