Christmas Eve Thoughts

 

Today’s thought comes on Christmas Eve, 2020.  I don’t know what your situation is right now, and I don’t know how well you have fared during this extraordinary year.  Perhaps you have been pretty much untouched by the viral pandemic, still have your income, and all is well with you.  On the other hand, you may have had a loved one succumb to the virus, have lost your source of income, are six months behind on your rent, and are wondering whether you will have enough to eat tomorrow.  Or you could find yourself anywhere in between those two scenarios.

My words to you would be different, depending on where you fall on the lifeline.  However, one thing remains the same for everyone, regardless.

This holiday, different from all of the others we celebrate, offers us something that we all desperately need…hope.  Even if you are comfortable now with good health, good income, and good friends, just the fact that you’re human means you also long for some intangibles…things that you can’t see, buy, or touch.  Hope is one of those things.  Not hope in the sense of, “I hope it won’t snow tomorrow,” but hope in the sense of the perception of something greater than oneself that carries with it the promise of a better tomorrow.  For those of us who are Christians, that hope is found in Jesus the Christ.

Greater than ourselves…in fact the very God of the Universe, Jesus Christ embodies the hope that we all so desperately crave.  The promise of forgiveness…renewal…acceptance…love…belonging…assurance…inheritance.  Those things and more, all intangible, but very, very real, are part of the hope that we find in the one whose birth we celebrate during this holiday season.

So, as we gather together at this time in a kind of enforced, distanced way, our thoughts need to be pointed toward the hope of something better…something lasting…something eternally good.  Yes, let’s all hope that 2021 will be a far better year than 2020.  Yes, let’s all pray that healing will come quickly and that those who are in authority make good decisions.  Let’s all pray that civility, humility, and generosity will prevail.  But perhaps the best prayer of all is the one found in one of the last verses of the last book in the Bible…”Amen, come Lord Jesus.”