Week One: I didn’t grow up celebrating Advent and if I’m honest, I only recently realized what it meant. I had heard the word before but assumed it was a denominational tradition. It’s actually a beautiful reminder of why we celebrate not only Christmas, but our Christian faith.
For those that might be like me, let me start with an explanation of Advent. The infamous Wikipedia will tell you it is “a time of waiting and preparing for both the celebration of Jesus’ birth at Christmas and the return of Christ at the Second Coming.” But Advent is less about waiting and more accurately a celebration of the coming of Christ.
Beginning each year on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, each week of Advent has a specific emphasis. And as you can guess by the title, the first week of Advent focuses on HOPE.
So many verses come to mind when I think about hope, but one of my favorites is found in Isaiah, chapter nine, which says, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined” (Isaiah 9:2). The word hope isn’t found in this verse but it resonates from it nonetheless. This encouragement was prophetic. It spoke of the hope which was to come. In fact, just four verses later we find: “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end…”
This is the epitome of hope.
I find the Bible fascinating. The words of Isaiah reached forward into my own life and described how I felt, sitting in darkness (and not knowing it) until the light of God’s love and grace found me. I remember hoping there was more to life than what I was experiencing. Not yet understanding faith, I remember wishing life could be different.
Without a preacher, without a bible, I clung to hope. I just didn’t know what I was hoping for.
Hope is the whole-hearted, evidence-based conviction that God is making the future better than the past or present.
2 Corinthians 4:6 says, “For God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ.” Like a lightbulb moment, God invades people’s darkness offering hope.
And it doesn’t stop with salvation. “[Now] we have this [hope] as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul [it cannot slip and it cannot break down under whoever steps out on it– a hope] that reaches farther and enters into [the very certainty of the Presence] within the veil” (Hebrews 6:19 AMPC). The New Living says, “This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our soul…”
For a better future–
There’s such anticipation around Christmas. We look forward to seeing family and exchanging gifts. But as a believer, the real anticipation goes way past December 25th. Our eyes and hearts are set on His second coming.
Christmas is the celebration that Light came and broke through our darkness but now we have this hope also: “The city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminates it. The Lamb is its light” (Revelation 21:23). This is our future; a place where all hope is fulfilled because all darkness has vanished.
We can’t fully imagine it. But that’s why hope exists. And you know the verse: “Faith is the substance of things HOPED FOR, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). Hope has always been the foundation of our belief. In the middle of exile, God gave His people a promise that still resonates with us today: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).
So I pray this first week week of Advent reminds us to be a people of hope– believing darkness will not prevail because the Light of the goodness of God, Jesus Himself, is shining on the land of the living and leading us to another home.
