The Gifts of Christmas – Hope
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
(Part 3 in a 3 Part Series)
Hope. It’s that feeling that tomorrow will be better no matter what today brings. It’s the ever present drive to reach for something you can’t quite grasp with your hands, but you can always grasp with your heart. Hope is what makes us get out of bed in the morning even when we don’t feel like facing our life, and hope is what gives us the courage to make the impossible – possible even in the midst of doubt.
Hope was born on Christmas Day.
Hopelessness can easily settle in if we allow it to permeate our thoughts. There have been times in my life when hopelessness sank my heart. Yet somehow, even though I had given up, hope found me. That’s the thing about hope; it can find you even when you are not sure you want to hope any longer because it hurts too much.
As a child, I felt hopeless when my dad walked out on his marriage to my mom, and out of my life. Though I visited him from time to time, he never filled that fatherly void in my heart and I never quite felt as if he truly loved me, just as I was.
But God provided a step father who loves me for me. Hope lived on.
As a college student, I felt hopeless when my boyfriend of four years cheated on me and shattered my heart and my self-esteem.
But God provided Michael who loves me just as I am, and who introduced me to Jesus.
As a young adult, I felt hopeless when my sister and I cared for our biological father after his stroke, and the chaos and stress never seemed to end.
But God reached him and he accepted Christ as his Savior two days before he died.
My hopeless times seem somewhat trivial as I write them out as I have never faced cancer, the death of a child, nor the pain of losing a spouse. I am sure you have faced hopeless times in your life that make mine pale in comparison. I want you to know that I realize that. I have not walked where you have walked, nor could I know what you have experienced in your life and I don’t want to pretend to know your heart.
What I do know is that our hope rests in the gift of Christmas, in that tiny little Baby born to a virgin, in a stable where the animals slept. In the Savior He became and the gift He gives freely to us if we only accept it.
In the Psalms, we read that “We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield,” (Psalm 33:20). In Romans, we are told that our hope may be unseen, but if we wait patiently our hope will save us. (Romans 8:24-25)
The thing is that hope lives in you and hope lives in me, if we accept it.
This Christmas, my prayer is that you grab hold of the hope you can’t quite grasp with your hands, but you can always grasp with your heart, and sing as the angels sang on that first Christmas night when hope was born.
Merry Christmas……
Posted by Trish Berg 7:00 AM
Labels: Graphic Publications, The Bargain Hunter, Wooster Weekly News
