The Candle of Hope

It’s been a busy week!  We gave thanks Wednesday night in church and on Thursday with our families.  If you get into the Black Friday thing, you were up early on Friday for that.  After all of those festivities we began the Advent season on Sunday by lighting the candle of hope.  Hope is a powerful thing. Hope will drive people to cross oceans to unknown worlds. Hope will pick a person back up after being knocked down for the hundredth time.  Because of hope, people will put themselves and their bodies through excruciating pain. Hope sees past current struggles to a glorious day that lies in the future.

As we light this first candle of hope, we are connecting with God’s Old Testament people who longed for the coming of the Messiah.  We connect with those who were in exile, away from their homeland. We connect with those longing for redemption, for a change of fortunes.  As we light this candle, let’s call to mind all that we deeply long for. Let’s remember that we now have what so many hoped for. A day is coming for us when every longing will be met, a day when we will finally be home.