Hope

Nov 26, 2023 | by Pastor Josh Tate | series: The Advent


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Anyone who was once a child on Christmas Eve knows something about waiting with hope. My brother, Job, and I shared a bedroom back then and it was an annual tradition for us to try and stay up and listen for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. I can recall after being sent to bed I would lean over from the top bunk and whisper excitedly to Job on the bottom bunk. Back and forth we would talk as we listened for the sound of reindeer hooves on the roof. I was so excited that it seemed impossible that I could ever fall asleep, but at some point, the whispering became less frequent and then stopped altogether, my eyelids became heavier, my breathing leveled out and then…visions of gumdrops danced in my head. I was asleep.

And yet, even though I slept, I did not miss out on Christmas.

Above that deep and dreamless sleep the silent hours ticked by, until that glorious moment when my eyes blinked open, and it was Christmas day! In the living room we would find the heavy stockings, the gifts and all the other Christmas surprises that bore mute testimony to the fact that our hopes had been vindicated.

How many generations of believers have looked excitedly for the promised day? They spoke often to one another about their hope in Christ as Job and I spoke with hope on those long-ago Christmas Eves. They looked to the sky and listened for the trumpet, but at some point, their limbs grew heavy, the spark went out of their eyes and their breathing stopped altogether.

And yet, even though they fell asleep they will not miss out on the promised day that they had longed to see. For Christians, Christmas is a forward-looking holiday. It is a celebration of the hope we hold that after all those deep and dreamless years of sleep in the grave those same eyes will blink open again and find that their hope in Christ was vindicated.