Advent Hope

The season of Advent is a time of darkness.

• A friend of mine struggles through infertility and the frustration that it brings.
• Larry, another friend of mine, has an adult son with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.  A vibrant young man has his energy sapped.  They have traveled the country in search of effective treatments.
• My wife Shannon battles the ovarian cancer that has plagued her for the past eleven years.

As Christians, we’re free to admit the pain of this world.  Sometimes life hurts.  We acknowledge the darkness we experience.

The season of Advent is a time of hope.

• My friend and his wife prayed fervently for a child.  
• Larry and his family begged God for effective treatments.  
• Shannon and I pleaded for a cure.

For the past few weeks my daily Bible readings have spoken of hope to a people in despair.  “God has remembered God’s promises.”  “God has heard your prayer.”  “The Lord will come…”  “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness will not overcome it.”

And in this season of hope, against the backdrop of these profound promises:

• My friend and his wife remain without a new child.  Despite much effort, many procedures, and much expense, the reality of not having more children starts to sink in.  They have reached the end of the line.
• Larry’s son did not find successful treatments.  He passed away on Wednesday leaving a grieving family behind. 
• Shannon’s cancer has progressed in the past year, moving beyond the abdomen and into the lining of her lung.

The great promises of Advent can ring hollow in the midst of the pain of the world.  I thought God promised to hear our prayers! 

Perhaps we need to rethink the hope that comes in this Advent season.  We do not hope in a Santa Claus who will bring us what we ask for (if we’ve been good).  We hope in a God who lives among God’s people.  Advent is a season of waiting for God to come to us in Jesus.  This is a time of remembering that we are not alone, no matter what we endure.

• God walks with couples struggling with infertility.
• God wraps God’s loving arms around those grieving death.
• God journeys with those who live a life of chemotherapy.

We look forward to a day when Jesus will come again and bring an end to the suffering and pain we experience, but until then we simply live in hope.  This isn’t hope in a God who will wave a magic wand and ‘make it all better.’  We live in the hope of God with us in the midst of our daily struggles.

The light shines in the darkness.  That darkness seems pretty deep and impenetrable at times, but in a manger in Bethlehem, a little light begins to flicker.  Immanuel.  God with us.

I cling to that hope with my entire being.