Scripture: Isaiah 7:14
We use the word “hope” in all kinds of ways in our current culture. I can hope that it won’t rain. I can hope that the “hot donuts now” sign is on when I get to Krispy Kreme. I can also hope that the chemotherapy keeps working or that my child’s struggle with addiction will be healed.
At this time of the year for Christians, we are choosing a deeper hope as we intentionally wait with anticipation. We are choosing hope that once again the story of an ordinary baby, born to young people of color in a world where they had no voice and no power, would upend the entire power structure of Rome with the good news of God’s love. It was hope so frightening that it ended in execution even as it was a hope fulfilled for all those with faith in Jesus.
Perhaps the very pregnant Mary, tired and uncomfortable and ready for motherhood, helps us explore hope. When you or someone in your family is anxiously awaiting a birth, what do you hope for? As you anticipate celebrating Christmas, what do you hope for? I invite you to jot down your reflections on this page.
As we wait for Jesus, carry hope for a world redeemed. Carry hope for justice and equity. Carry hope that even you, an ordinary person, can be used as a vessel in the story of God’s great redemption of the world. If a powerless pregnant teenager can be used in God’s plan, take heart that you will also.
Prayer: God, make me a person of hope, even if it stands counter to the hopelessness of the world. And build hope and anticipation in my spirit as I wait once again for your son’s redemptive story to be told. Thank you, God, for the hope you gave me and the entire world when you sent Jesus. Amen.
Jeanell Cox, a chaplain at Glenaire Retirement Home, is married to our pastor and has three sons.