Please pass the hope

November 29, 2022 | Karen Barnes

About the author: Karen Barnes is celebrating her 26th year of ZPC membership this December. She and her husband Clay have three beautiful children – Gracie (28 and married to Bryan), Christina (26) and Noah (15). She is an incoming elder and has been involved with many ministries at ZPC over the years. She loves to travel, and the above photo was taken on a hot day this summer in Greece at a spot where Paul is believed to have addressed the Corinthians.

The time of Isaiah was characterized by great fear, uncertainty, war, and looming war and rebellion. Read the early chapters of Isaiah to get a better sense of the specifics the people faced. This was a time marked by darkness and despair. Does that ring with you? Maybe you see much of this reflected in our current global situation or on the nightly news. Maybe you feel it more personally within your own life. I certainly have felt both darkness and despair within the past year. Despite many blessings, to be perfectly honest, it has been a tough year for me. But Isaiah tells us this “time of darkness and despair will not go on forever” (Isaiah 9:1a) and there will be a time in the future that “will be filled with glory” (Isaiah 9:1b). Isaiah 9 goes on to describe what that future glory will look like, culminating in verse 6.  Today’s verse reads to me like a triumphant, royal birth announcement. A proclamation. I can envision the banners unfurling, the joyful crowds cheering, and I can almost hear the trumpet blast as I read it in my head. 

Isaiah 9:6 “For a child has been born for us, a son given to us.  Authority rests upon his shoulders, and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

Through Isaiah’s prophecy, God is giving his people the only thing they really need in times of darkness and despair…hope. The ultimate blessing God delivers is, well, a deliverer. A leader given to us as a child, as a son. He will possess exactly the traits that we need – wise and wonderful counsel, true might and strength, eternal reign and a Lordship saturated in peace. As Pastor Ebling preached in this past Sunday’s service, this “Advent hope” is not mere wishful thinking. It is no less than “the confident expectation that what God says will one day be true.”

Hope is exactly what we need in times of darkness and despair. Actually, hope is exactly what we always need. Author and Pastor John Ortberg calls it “vital optimism.” It fuels us as we wait on the Lord. It encourages us to look up and out of our own situation.  It comforts our souls. I have a sweet friend who reminds me to look for the light in the cracks. It is always there, she says, but you must look for it.  That comforted me tremendously this past year. As did another friend who flooded my text box with YouTube videos of Christian songs when she knew I was struggling. Through love, both women helped me to refocus on the only true hope we have, Jesus.

The Advent season fills us with the hope of Jesus. A natural next step then is to share that hope with others. That act of sharing can take many forms. It might be a direct conversation, letting another hear your testimony and “the reason for the hope that you have” (1 Peter 3:15). It might be an act of love, making someone cookies or sending an encouraging note, text, or phone call. It might be an invitation… to coffee, lunch, church, the Cantata, the Great Banquet, or to join your family celebrations. That is your challenge today. Find a way to share the message of Advent hope with another person. Look around in your sphere of influence and see who really needs some hope. Partner with the Lord to lighten the darkness and despair with a unique touch of love that only you can give.  Jesus will supply all the hope.

Lord, we thank you for our deliverer, Jesus. We thank you for the hope we have in him. He is all that we need. Give us courage to find ways to share this hope throughout the Advent season and for all our days.  Amen.

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