Hope of Advent

The first week of Advent symbolizes the hope we have for a Savior. The hope we experience in the coming of the Christ child, a messiah who will bring goodness to the world and restore our relationship with God to what it was before Adam and Eve fell from grace.

Something I’ve always found interesting about hope is that it requires us to wait. We often hope for things. Perhaps this year you hope to get a raise. Perhaps you hope to lose some weight in the new year. Perhaps you hope to start a family. Or perhaps your hope is that this year you’ll finally go back to school like you’ve always wanted to.

But hope is about believing with confidence that what is hoped for will be received. As Christians, we look forward to the coming of Christ because we know we can believe in God’s promises. We know that the Lord loves us and that gives us confidence to believe that there could be something as miraculous as a baby born to a virgin who will save a world of people from their sinfulness. It’s an audacious claim, ridiculous in this day and age of logic and technology and people who will only believe in what they can see and touch.

But we know the truth is that the Lord did come to earth. God gave to us his only Son so that we might have eternal life. And so the hope we have during Advent is not just for Christ to come, but we hope IN Christ, WITH Christ for everything we need in our lives. We are children of God because of Jesus Christ. We may have confidence and trust in our eternal salvation because of Him. Thanks be to God. Thanks be to Jesus Christ. Amen.