Someone gave me some good news today. It was something, without noticing, I’d lost hope was going to happen. I’d knocked on a couple of doors (Christian lingo…) but none had opened. So when my friend phoned me to tell me, it was like a light came on – hope had returned.
I wonder if that was how many people were feeling when Jesus was born? They had all these promises of a Saviour all the stories of God coming to the rescue, then 400 years of silence. No kings, no prophets, just oppression from foreign rulers. I imagine they had prayed, they had hoped, they had trued everything they knew how to, but I wonder if they had begun to resign themselves that it wasn’t going to happen, that those promises weren’t going to come true. I wonder if they had begun to lose hope.
And then out of nowhere, it’s time. Mary is pregnant, goes back to Bethlehem (David’s town), angels appear to shepherds, wise men travel reporting the coming of a king. Promises are being kept. A light appears, a flicker of hope.
The thing is, a flicker of hope is powerful. Hope can keep you going when it gets tough. Hope can help you bounce back after a setback. Hope is priceless, a belief that things can change.
So this little baby represented so much to the people in Israel, and means so much to us today. He is a flicker of hope that can sustain you when all else seems to be going wrong.
After 400 years of silence, Jesus came and with him, hope returned.
The Reason for my Hope Blog 