REFLECT
Do you remember the anticipation of Christmas morning as a child? The weeks hoping that that special present would be under the tree or in your stocking?
The one that comes to mind was all the way back in 1993 when the thing I wanted most for Christmas was the Jurassic Park ELECTRONIC Command Compound. It was the play set for the main park in the movie, it had those iconic gates, the electric fence, a net launcher, it made sound effects, and even had Dino-damage™ (which made the gates and compound break apart when the dinosaurs attacked). This was the main item on my list. I had so much hope that Christmas morning would find me opening a giant present and finding it inside. I did what I could to let my parents know it was what I wanted, I told them (to the point of annoyance), I circled it in all the flyers (especially the Eatons and Toys r Us ones), and wrote it on my wish list which was of course fastened to the front of the fridge in plain sight for all to see.
So here I was full of hope and anticipating that under the tree at Grandpa and Grandma
Herringer’s on Christmas morning would find the giant box of the compound and maybe,
just maybe an assortment of other random dinosaurs.
But with that hope and anticipation was also a little bit (ok maybe more than a little bit) of
fear and worry. What if they didn’t get it? What if my parents only got me some of the
dinosaurs? Even worse, what if they didn’t realize that I didn’t want a ninja turtle that year, or what if worst of all it was just socks?
Would my hopes be fulfilled or would I experience the disappointment of dashed dreams?
Well luckily for ten-year-old Matt, this isn’t that story. Because that morning under the tree from Santa was a giant box, and as I tore through the wrapping paper what appeared from underneath? That beautiful T-Rex skeleton logo. I’m sure there was celebrating and hollering as I got the box open. This year hope did not disappoint.
As long as I can remember Christmas has been my favourite time of year, I love it. I love the wonder that enters the world, the joy, the beauty, the way the lights on the houses brighten up the dark and bleak nights. While winter is my least favourite season, Christmas comes as a sign of hope right in the middle of it all. Perhaps what made the endless winter in Narnia so hard to cope with, to live through, was that there was no Christmas to come into it and point to the light.
The gifts, the music, the decorations, the anticipation of the season; its all just a shadow of the true hope of Advent. We hope not for the right presents, for that idyllic morning, for the perfect dinner with no family fights, but instead we hope for the return of Christ. For that final in-breaking of the Kingdom of Heaven into time, space, and matter - when Jesus will return and make all things new, and things will finally be set to rights.
Advent reminds us that things won’t always be the way that they are, that those aches that we have that the world isn’t quite right, isn’t the way it should be, the aches are right. Those aches are the birth pangs of the new creation. So, we don’t have to hope for lesser things, yes even Jurassic Park Compounds, no we have hope for even better.
Advent reminds us that because of that first breaking through of the kingdom into time,
space, and matter through the birth of Jesus, we have hope. Hope that our sins are forgiven, hope for a restored relationship with our Creator, hope for fullness of live in the here and now, and hope for resurrection one day. And that hope does not disappoint.
DISCUSS
Hope can be really hard and so we often try to protect ourselves from hope. Perhaps we just choose not to hope because then we can’t be disappointed when we don’t get what we hope for, but in turn, we live a settled life. Or perhaps we choose to just be optimistic having a positive perspective which may sound like hope, except that our optimism is not grounded in anything, it’s just an unnamed positivity. Or perhaps we settle for self-sufficiency not hoping for anything we can’t control or make happen. All of these responses are ways of guarding ourselves against disappointment and what ifs, and are also ways of keeping ourselves from wonder and mystery keeping us stuck in the things we can see and understand.
Are you more likely to settle for disappointment or substitute hope for optimism?
How does self-sufficiency show up in your life?
PRACTICE
Listen | Jesus, what do you want to say about HOPE in my life?
Write down specifics - memories, words, phrases, lies, attitudes.
Ask | Jesus, awaken me to the ability to be surprised by HOPE.
Give Thanks | Read Romans 5:1-11 and 1 Corinthians 15:12-28 in worship to Jesus for being the full embodiment of HOPE.
RESPOND
This week, embrace HOPE by praying at sunrise “Thank you Jesus, that you came”, and sunset, “Thank you Jesus, that you will come again.”
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