Christmas Hope

In a shool presentation of A Christmas Carol, I played the ghost of Jacob Marley. He is the one who announces to Scrooge that he will be visited by three different spirits - past, present, and yet to come. Marley is shackled by chains, chains he acquired by his own tightfisted and sour ways while alive. He comes to reveal the outcome of that kind of life to Scrooge. Scrooge changes his ways after seeing into the future.

The story of Christ's coming brings together past, present, and things yet to come. The OT prophets forecast Jesus' coming, the angels announced to the shepherds that Jesus had arrived. Our hope for the future would be in Him. As a Christian, my hope for the cares of this life and the hope of eternal life is found in Him. I sometimes wish that a visiting angel would come and reveal the future to me, so that I could see that hope, but instead it is based on trust in the Biblical story, in the revelation of the ages, and most important of all, my relationship with Christ.

None of us can see into the future. Our hope is based on what we cannot see. So our trust comes from the heart. The Christmas story is about true hope - that the Savior who came is indeed the Son of the living God, who came to offer us abundant life now and eternal life to come. Though we can't see him, we can know him.

None of us know what the new year will bring. There are economic uncertainties. Some face job loss, some have health issues. Amidst so many uncertainties, where do we place our hope for what is "yet to come." We won't receive a visit from a spirit that will take us into our future. But we can go into the future with our hope in Christ, no matter what will happen. His promise is that when our trust is placed in Him, He will take care of us as we walk through this life, along with the hope of being with Him forever when our days on earth are done. This Christmas echoes the Christian hope from a line of a hymn, "On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand."