Let’s be honest for a moment… Christmas really can be “the most wonderful time of the year,” but it can also be a time that we struggle to find hope. Have you ever come through a Christmas season disappointed, discouraged or with a sense of cynicism? Maybe it was something small like you didn’t get the gift you hoped for or something much more heavy like that one person you had hoped would be there, wasn’t. Or yet again your family couldn’t make it through one gathering without arguing or it’s just another family dinner with the grief of the one empty chair at the table. Friend, I’ve been there too.   

Cynicism – the loss of hope in others is such a natural response to the state of our fallen world. But I’ve also discovered that a loss of hope in others inevitably seeps into a loss of hope in God. When people let us down again and again, our hearts can become a hard shell of self-protection which can become resistant to hope in the promises of God too because the vulnerable act of hope has become too risky.   

In comes the story of Mary – the young mother chosen to bear the Son of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit and Elizabeth who had a lifetime of disappointing barrenness to stack up against the promise of the angel Gabriel. If anyone had good reason to be cynical it was Elizabeth and yet God was faithful to fulfill her promise to her, to conceive John the Baptist in her old age. And if anyone had reason to fear it was Mary. To fear the judgment of others, the “how could this be?” the “who am I to be chosen for this calling?” and yet, she chose to believe. This act of defiance against the world's brokenness and chaos – faith. We see that God is so pleased with their faith, their hope and their decision to trust. “You are blessed because you believed the Lord would do what he said.”   

Like a child willingly and eagerly accepting a gift from their parents on Christmas morning, can we come to Jesus with open hands and a vulnerable heart ready to receive his good gifts? This Christmas season may you find the courage to trust in God’s promises to you, from the source of hope himself – Jesus. To trust in the reality of peace that surpasses all understanding, that he will provide for all your needs, that he is good in the midst of your unanswered prayers and with you in your quiet and chaotic moments. 

“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13