Advent (Week One)

~ The Candle of Hope ~

In the midst of sin and shame //

And scarred stories of pain //

When tears fall like rain – against the thorns and thistles of a groaning world //

In our suffering and in our doubt //

In all the seasons that we go without //

answers to the questions that haunt our soul //

Like Job, we cry, “Where then is my hope?” //

Like the Psalmist, “Where does my help come from?” //

In this darkness, this fierce foreboding //

Where even prophets run and hide. //

There remains a hope on the horizon //

a Light we fix our eyes on: //

Yeshua. Messiah. Christ //

The first candle of Advent is the Candle of Hope. As we light this candle, we remember the hope in the hearts of God’s people as they waited for the promised Messiah. As we light this candle, we are reminded that hope is a light – piercing the darkness of doubt and fear and shame and discouragement within us and around us.

And we remember that this hope was God’s plan from the beginning. Truly, the story of the world is a story of hope. God’s Word tells us that our experience on this earth is “because of Him who subjected it in hope (Romans 8:20).”

And this hope has a name; His name is JESUS.

As we light this first candle of Advent, we remember… //

the cry of the psalmist:

O [people of God], hope in the Lord;

for with the Lord there is mercy,

and with Him is abundant redemption (Psalm 130:7) //

and the promise of the prophets:

Blessed is the [one] who trusts in the Lord,

And whose hope is in the Lord (Jeremiah 17:7) //

and the heart of our Father:

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) //

What is this promised future?

What is the hope for this world?

The answer…

Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossian 1:27).

HE is the hope of the world.

He always has been.

He always will be.