Day 4: For hope
Of the greatness of [Christ’s] government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever (Isaiah 9:7).
I heard a song – a petition to Santa (You may have heard it too!)
The song harkens back to the years of childhood when life seemed as simple as giving Santa a list. Or scribbling a request.
But in the grown-up world, according to the song, the list becomes sobering and more complicated… It is no longer as simple as asking for the latest toy.
The “grown-up” focus shifts to the deepest needs of humanity— shattered lives to be made whole again; war and conflict to cease for good; fragile, broken, and battered hearts to be healed and mended; loneliness and ostracization to be replaced by love and friendship; good to triumph, wrongs to be made right.
In that regard the song is right— these are indeed the cries of the human heart. But It is God we long for. Even when we don’t know it, or admit it. God placed eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11). In the words of Augustine, “God, You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in You".
And the psalmist prayed, O Lord, all my longing is before You, my sighing is not hidden from You (Psalm 38:9).
We feel keenly the dis-ease and disquiet of our troubled world: We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time (Romans 8:22). And not just the creation around us. Henry David Thoreau observed, The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
But a Baby came. Not just any baby. He had to be pure, spotless, sinless. As only God can be. He had to be born of a virgin, through the power of the Holy Spirit so that he could be clearly set apart from the spiritual contamination of humans.
He had to be one who would not carry the curse of sin, so that He could to transfuse humanity with His own blood and restore everything to perfection. He had to be untouched by the human inheritance from Adam, for, …Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned… (Romans 5:12).
So Jesus came, and He fully accomplished renewal for us: Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. (Hebrews 2:14-15).
He is the only One who can bring true and lasting peace. And one day, this Jesus, the Prince of Peace will establish His full governance on the earth—a reign of peace and safety. No more shattered lives. Strife and conflict will cease:
[God’s Messiah] will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore (Isaiah 2:4).
But for now, in this, the day of salvation, He waits in love and with great patience for us to exchange the corruption we inherited as part of our human nature, for the transformation He offers. The transformation He purchased at great price.
As we celebrate Christmas, may the message of His great love find its way to our hearts. May we recognize the truth amid all the lies, distortions, and distractions. God has designed us to recognize Truth because He set eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11).
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans15:13).
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