The first week of Advent we are focusing on the concept of Hope. I believe this year has been a divine opportunity to refine our perspective and to re-examine from whom our HOPE dwells.

I hope you feel better soon. I hope to be there by noon. I hope this pandemic is over by Easter, August, by 2022! I hope I have enough toilet paper. I hope we don’t lose any one we love… I hope—I hope—I hope—

As disciples of Christ- we learned this year where our hope does not come from. It is not bound in tradition, routine, the government, or within ourselves. It’s not positive thinking or peppy optimism. Our Hope is found in Christ alone.

Romans 5 puts it this way:

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we[b] boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we[c] also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

We can put our hope in our Lord Jesus Christ and we will not be put to shame. As our world has been rattled this year…nothing looks like we want it to. Things feel alien, and our plans lay in the wreckage of this nasty virus. We can find comfort in the truth that the change to our world and our plans have not surprised our Lord. He is today as He been and forever more will be. We do not need to fear- when our Hope is Christ.