First Sunday of Advent: Hope
The Shawshank Redemption is one of my "remote drop" movies. If I'm channel-surfing, and it's on, I will stop and watch it. Some folk might see it as a dark movie. For me, it's a movie about hope. The main character, Andy Dufresne, who is wrongly imprisoned for the murder of his wife, comes out from a stint in solitary confinement, and speaks of hope. His best friend, Red, quickly puts him down, saying that hope while in prison can drive a man crazy. In the final frames of the film, as Red is walking along the beach, he constantly speaks of the hopes that he has with his new freedom. He hopes, he hopes, he hopes.....
Since the time of Moses, the Israelites hoped for the coming Messiah. Even their greatest prophet, Isaiah, shared that hope in Isaiah, chapter 9. In verse 6, he shares that a child will be born, a son given, and He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. The hope of our salvation was to be in a child born, a son given.
Where is our hope today? Often, our hope is for our daily living and tasks, "I hope I get that raise". "I hope I can get to the DMV and the line is short." "I hope those shoes are still in stock on Amazon." But there's another hope - a hope for something for something intangible. Something bigger than ourselves. Hebrews 11:1 gives us the answer: "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." Let's face it, being a follower of Christ requires not just faith, but a hope that what we are told, what we read, what we experience in our relationship with God, is absolutely true. And like Red hoped to see that the Pacific ocean was as blue as he'd been told, and hoped that he'd see his friend, Andy, we hope that someday, our faith will be rewarded by seeing and experiencing God in all His fullness.
We can only hope....
Follow John's Advent journey here on his blog, johnscoffeehouse.blogspot.com, or on Facebook, johnscoffeehouse.
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