![What is real hope? [Hope Again, pt 1 / 3]](https://www.yourcrosscreek.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/part1-1080x675.jpg)
Hope. It’s turned into an elusive feeling we cynically relegate it to an ethereal, magical feeling for kids at Christmas. But hope is real. And real hope is powerful. Real hope is tangible. Real hope is available to each of us personally. It’s a hope that was realized over 2000 yrs ago by a teenage peasant named Mary and it’s a hope each of us can personally experience this xmas and the rest of the year.
Every New Year’s Eve we hope the next year will be a reset and that this will finally be a “good year.” Unfortunately life doesn’t work that way. The good and the bad always come at us at the same time. Even though we can’t guarantee a ”good year,” Jesus offers us something better… a new beginning in the middle of our real life.
The world waits for a miracle… The heart longs for a little bit of hope… Oh come, oh come, Emmanuel
It’s human nature to be afraid of the dark. It isolates us and hides reality. But in the presence of light, darkness is nothing. Christmas is the story of God shining his light in the darkness of the world to end our isolation and give our lives true purpose.
There is a darkness in the world that we seem powerless to remove. Almost all belief systems offer a solution to this darkness. Christmas, however, is God’s unique and lasting answer to the darkness in the world and the darkness we find in ourselves.