Hope --- the Great Sustain

Merry Christmas to those who embrace this marked day. Christmas is a day full of expectation with families gathering and excitement for all ages. As you pass thru this life there is one particular day that stands out among the 352 days of the year that offers promise of reconciliation of family members separated by miles or even years of silence. The truth is there is a whole lot of "hope" bouncing around in our hearts. Like a faint tune of a song we may have sung in years gone by, as we grow older we long for the security and sounds of simpler times. Life tends to bring a complexity to life's motif that challenges us to the degree a masterfully crafted composition does an aspiring musician. All the practice in the world cannot predict the variables in a live performance. As a musician myself, you work to achieve a familiarity of the musical rendition that gives you a confidence that cannot be shaken by distractions or surprises. Like a child that waits impatiently by the tree for the moment they can tear into the neatly wrapped gifts, we grasp to the idea with faith and hope that something is going to change or happen that seems improbable or even impossible. The seconds on the clock of life ticks in such a way that we can hear the beat of time as we hold to the promise that a new day will dawn.

I recently found myself in a conversation with a sales rep of a supplier that left me perplexed and concerned. I had never met the young lady but as we were discussing a timeline in regards to delivery of a product she was having difficulty saying the word "Christmas". She stumbled over it and moved on but I could not help but ask her why she had such a hard time saying a word that is likely the most celebrated day in the history of the world. As I awaited her response I heard her say "I don't believe in anything......well I believe in science". As she opened up she began to share that she was raised Roman Catholic but began to question her faith as a teenager. What broke my heart was the fact that she had decided that she didn't believe in anything. I was struck by the emptiness of this life without belief.

So, millions of people celebrate Christmas on different levels. For many it is a season for hope and belief that Jesus lives. I'm not ashamed to say I have decided to follow Jesus and I do believe that he was more that a great profit or teacher, and he is exactly who he said he was. Jesus told his disciples that he was leaving them with a gift.

“I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid." John 14:27 New Living Translation (NLT)

" Who hopes for what he already has?" Remember when you were a kid as Christmas neared and the Sears & Roebuck Christmas catalog came out? I would sit and look thru that catalog and study it to see what exactly I wanted for Christmas. It wasn't an easy decision but when I locked into it HOPE kicked in. One thing I've discovered as I've gotten just a little older is my HOPE list is less about getting something and more about belief that life is too short to live it hopelessly. There's an old chorus we used to sing in church that went like this, "What a day that will be, when my Jesus I shall see, when I look upon His face, the one who saved my by His grace, and he takes me by the hand, and leads me thru the promised land, what a day, a glorious day, that will be"

I pray you find living, sustaining Hope in the real meaning of Christmas.

For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. Romans 8:24-25
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Rom%208:%2024-25&version=NIV