Expecting Advent Hope

“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will fulfill the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah.” “In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which it will be called: The LORD Our Righteous Savior.” Jeremiah 33:14–16

As we enter into Advent we enter into the reality that “the day’s are coming.” Thus has been the posture of the People of God since the fall, “the days are coming,” and in that posture the reality that the days are already here. Here, and yet coming. 

WAITING. REJOICING. SALVATION Now. SALVATION COMING. EXPECTING. 

Earlier this week, I came across a writing on the first week of Advent, HOPE, by my friend Todd Hunter.  Todd writes:  

Throbbing physical pain; fearful financial hardship; anguished heartache coming from the injustice of being wrongly accused—all these are bearable for a moment, a time, and a season—but only when we have hope. Without hope we wither; we crumble. Our confidence is ground to smithereens by relentless cycles of fear.

Our ancient Jewish forefathers and mothers, waiting for the coming of The Messiah, had deep familiarity with the struggle to maintain faith, optimism and hope. Their Psalmist reminded them that, no one who hopes in [God] will ever be put to shame. Their prophets, speaking for God, rekindled anticipation in the hope that the days are coming when [God] will fulfill the good promise [he] made.

We who live between the first and second coming of Jesus know a similar reality. We wonder, sometimes fearfully, what will happen to our lives, our families, our nation, and the world? But as the Psalms and Prophets comforted Israel, Jesus gives us enduring hope, saying: heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

Jesus' words were Reality. They remind us of the source of hope: we can be care-less about the despairing anxieties of life through the knowledge that he is care-full in his attention to us.

Advent Practice: be especially attentive this week to the moments when you experience God's care. How might you allow his care to bring hope to the difficult parts of your life?

Peace, hope and love

Doug