Perhaps you still remember when all your hopes during these few weeks after Thanksgiving were tied to what you were wishing you would find under the tree on Christmas morning. Were you one of those folks who didn’t want to leave anything to chance? You made sure everyone knew exactly what you wanted, where they could find it, and how much it would cost. Or maybe you wanted to test out the “magic” of the holiday, so you kept you wish list to yourself and let the “elves” do their work for you.
Whether you were explicit with your instructions or more reserved in sharing your expectations as you were growing up, eventually you realized that there had to be more to hope for than just what you might find wrapped in pretty paper and tied up with a bow. No bicycle was fast enough; no doll was pretty enough; no game system was cool enough to really satisfy your deepest hope for something more.
These days you don’t expect your hopes to be fulfilled by what someone can put in a box, but it’s still tempting to think that there is something that could transform your life—maybe it’s a new car or a new job or a pile of money. And, if you’re honest, you may have to admit sometimes that is where your prayers begin and end.
God has great news during these days of Advent. In the midst of this life that is so much less than you had hoped, God is sending a Savior who will reorder creation. When he comes, things are going to go back to the way they were originally created. As Walter Brueggemann says "the old practice of the big ones eating the little ones is not the wave of the future….The rightly governed world will indeed be detoxified, no more a threat to the poor, the meek, the children, the lamb, the kid. The new world will indeed be safe for the vulnerable."
That’s the hope I pray you have this year!
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