A Thrill of Hope

As my mother stood beside my sister’s grave, her cousin approached her. A few short years prior he has lost his 16 year old daughter in a car accident. His words cut through the cold, with an air of sorrow and anger, “I would like to tell you that it gets better, but it never does.” My mother listened to his words, broken for herself, but also broken for him. She turned to me and said “I can’t imagine what it feels like to have no hope.” Oddly enough his daughter’s name was Hope.

This Advent season, as we focus on “A Thrill of Hope,” may we be ever reminded that God’s great love brings hope in our darkness. “We do not grieve as those who have no hope” (1st Thessalonians 4:13) Hope is not only present in our grief. It is always there, thrilling us with it’s presence; reminding us that our great and mighty God sent his one and only son into the world so that we might not perish, but have eternal life in him, Christ Jesus, our Lord (John 3:16).

This advent, as we celebrate in Christ, may our lives and our words be filled with the very hope that Jesus brought.