Thrilling Hope

This weekend I got away for a few days. Just a quick getaway, because the time was there for once and somehow I was able to get out of town and settled in before evening. I unpacked my bags and the fatigue hit me. I didn't even know I was carrying it, I had been too busy. A few days ago I had read the lyrics from O Holy Night, "a thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices." and never were those words more real to me than right there in that moment when the weariness fell upon me. 

In the midst of all that's going on in the world right now, its easy to be tired of it all, and its difficult to find hope. We could all give a laundry list of things that we are dealing with at this very moment that instead of bolstering hope in us, they threaten to pull us to our knees. 

But, here we are at the very same time, we are getting ready to celebrate the arrival of the Savior of the World into our neck of the woods. Here on earth. God with us. And it should remind us, that even though we are no longer waiting for Him to come to redeem us to Him, we are still waiting for Him to come once more for His church. 

That is enough to give us a flicker of hope, a thrill of hope if we dare.