Hope

Twentieth Day of Advent

Psalms 25:4-5

Show me your ways, O LORD,

teach me your paths;

guide me in your truth and teach me,

for you are God my Savior,

and my hope is in you all day long.

I once heard about a little boy who defined the word “faith” as “believing that something is true even though you know perfectly well it isn’t”. And I suppose he could have defined “hope” in a similar way, as “believing something will happen even though you know perfectly well it won’t”. But, just as this is not really the best definition of “faith”, it’s not really the best definition of “hope”.

Hope is an attitude of heart that produces a certain life orientation. To live in hope is to live leaning into, rather than away from, the future. It is to live our lives in the expectation that God is going to do something good. It’s a deeper, and much better thing than “optimism”, which is merely confidence that everything will turn out fine in the end. Hope is the conviction that, regardless how things turn out, God will have his way in the end, and that’s what really matters.

For almost five-hundred years there had been no word from the Lord. The nation was in ruins, and invaders were in charge. False prophets had begun to speak their own words. Many leaders had joined with the invaders. Some people had grown impatient and taken up arms, and some had grown discouraged and given up caring. But some, like Mary and her husband Joseph, and Mary’s cousin Elizabeth and her husband Zachariah, were watching for the Lord to come, and waiting for the Lord to act, and leaning forward to listen.

That’s hope.