This week in our advent devotionals we are talking about hope and joy. As I was praying this morning, I thought about how God is in the business of unexpected victories. When it looks like everything is completely hopeless and out of control, those are the moments God gets to show us who he really is.
After Malachi (the last book in the Old Testament), no one had heard from God for hundreds of years. Suddenly Jesus – Immanuel, God with us – was born, and the angels rejoiced! The shepherds went to the stable to see if it possibly could be true. And the wise men saw a star in the sky and traveled to Bethlehem to worship the new king. God showed up! God is here! He is with us! Everything is going to be okay! You see, Jesus, the hero, had entered the story.
Before Jesus was born a lot of bad stuff had happened. Life was hard. But people had hope and joy because of what God had promised them. They were excited that he was going to save them. And then when it happened, they got to celebrate even more. Jesus – the Savior, the King, the Messiah – had finally come.
Moving forward 33 years, when Jesus died on the cross, it looked like bad things were happening again. Everyone was stunned. The hero was dead. It looked like there was no way God could possibly win. But then, God did the impossible. Jesus walked out of the tomb. He was alive. Jesus had won! And then, he made another promise that he would come back again and set everything right.
I hear a lot of talk about “Love Wins.” What does that even mean? I reckon it’s how you describe love. For our culture, love has become a battleground of tolerance and acceptance – a tug of war saying I’m right and you’re wrong, so you better follow me, or else! That’s not love. When we try to define love by our humanness and emotions, we find that love changes to fit our latest moods and desires.
True love is shown to us by the grace of God in while we were still selfish, self-centered, and easily offended, God sent His son to be born, live, and die for us so that we could have a family. Real love is God’s love. Real love is Jesus.
So even on the scariest days, when there appears to be no way to win, we can look to Jesus and find hope and joy. We can find hope in that everything He has promised to complete, He will. And we can find joy in the beauty he’s put into the world and in the way he is still doing impossible things in people’s lives. We already know how the story ends, so let’s continue to seek after Him.