The First Candle of Advent

There’s a lady I‘ve visited who would sometimes ask me about hope.  To her this word had come to mean “wishful thinking.”  We hope that things will turn out a certain way, but they may or may not actually work out according to our preferences.  But the hope that we have in Jesus is more than just wishful thinking.  Wishful thinking cannot bear the weight of Covid and hardship and broken relationships.  So what’s the difference between our stated preferences and the hope Jesus offers?

The difference is in who is making the promises. Wishful thinking begins with me - in my imagination and desires and solutions. Christian hope begins with God - His desires and solutions and vision for the future. When we light the first advent candle of hope, we aren’t just making a wish. We are claiming something that is as good as done. God has made a promise. And even when we can’t see it being fulfilled yet in our lives, we can live in the certainty that it will indeed be fulfilled. Hope can survive the hard times because it knows who has made the promise. One of the most beautiful expressions of our hope comes from the prophet Habakkuk: Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. (3:17-18)\