Cindy Powell

 

In the beginning … God.

In the beginning, God created. God created man for His own pleasure. God created man for relationship; for intimacy with Himself.

But then man separated himself from God. (It was never the other way around—it is still never the other way around.) Man hid.

Man has been hiding ever since.

Creation itself was subjected to futility. Futility it was never intended to know. The world ached. The world groaned. The world grew restless.

For four thousand years.

But then … again … God.

“In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him …

So the Word became human and made his home among us.”

And hope, literally, entered the human race. In a way that was relatable. Touchable. Knowable. As one of us.

“The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it” (Emp. mine).

Beloved, did you catch that? The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

Never. As in never ever.

The darkness cannot–will not– overcome the light. EVER.

That means the hope that came that first Christmas is here to stay.

Remember that this Christmas. Remember that hope didn’t just come once all those years ago–hope stayed. Because hope lives on …

Hope lives on in us.

Christ in us, the hope of glory.

It’s been two thousand years since hope invaded this dark and restless world. He may not have looked much like hope at the time (just like some of us don’t look much like hope at the moment!) – after all he was just a baby in a manger. But that baby grew. That baby lived. That baby lived a perfect life—then died a horrific death—to give the gift of His own perfect life to us.

But in the past two thousand years, what exactly have we done with that gift?

The world is still dark. The world is still restless.

“For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.”

The world is groaning. The world is longing.

The world needs hope.

We have hope.

We have the hope of Christmas.

Father, Thank You for the priceless gift of Your Son. This Christmas may the hope You’ve revealed to us in the face of Jesus, shine brightly from those who’ve tasted of Your unfailing love and goodness. God of hope, fill us with joy and peace in believing, that we may abound in hope through  the power of the Holy Spirit–and may the reality of the hope and peace we have in You overflow from us and into the restless world around us. ~Amen.