Christmas embodies hope. For many of us, our earliest memories of Christmas are memories of hope. Particularly the hope that you find what you asked Santa for under the tree Christmas morning. As we get older the hope we once focused on Santa begins to shift. Moving to hopes of time off work. Hope to see family and friends that you haven’t seen in some time. Hope to create good memories that we will rely on to survive until next Christmas. I bet you could even think of a few hopes you have this Christmas personally. From a Christian view, Christmas Hope means far more than all those others combined.
Back To The Beginning
To truly gain an understanding of Christmas Hope we have to step back in time. Not just back to the day of Jesus’s birth. We need to go all the way back. To a time when hope was not even a thought or a necessity to life. You see when God created the world and Adam and Eve walked through its gardens hope was not really a thing. But how can that be possible? Well, the world at that time was pure. There was no worry of sickness, death, or really anything inspiring of hope. They were at true peace and had all they knew to want.
The time before sin entered the world is illustrated in multiple places in the Bible. Genesis chapter 3 explains exactly what steps lead to sin entering the world. Listing also the consequences of the first sin. Those include animals no longer having the ability to communicate with humans and snakes forever having to crawl on their stomachs. For humans, consequences included pain of childbirth, the need to work the rest of your life to provide a living, and of course death.
Once pain, suffering, and death entered our world hope became essential to daily life. Hope had to be created from times of suffering. We hope for better things. Our hopes are often for things we do not want to disappoint us. Now that hope exists, where do you put it? Hope has to be pointed somewhere. Otherwise, you are putting all of your faith in yourself. They still had God, but their relationship was far different than we experience today. Since Jesus was yet to enter the world they had no mediator between God and themselves. The people of this time had to put their hope on their offerings to take away their sin. Thus making them right with God. However, due to the nature of people sin offerings could never keep them clean. So ultimately they could only hope for God to send a savior.
The Day Hope Came to Earth
For centuries after the fall prophets spoke of a Messiah. The savior that would come to rescue his people. People often found hope in the expected savior. Praying they would see the day their Messiah would come and rescue them. One day what was once only hoped for or even dreamed of became a reality. A child was born, a child unlike any before or to follow. Jesus entered the world, embodying hope and ultimately shaping our whole world.
You can see from the excerpt above how even at the time of Jesus’s birth change was coming. The Magi had an experience leading them to search out Jesus to worship him and offer gifts. They must have been lead by hope. One could assume hope that this Child had really come to change the world. A short visit from the wise men was enough to worry King Herod. Causing him to most likely hope this claim of a King of the Jews was false. Throughout his life, Jesus inspired hope. Hope to be healed of sickness, hope for loved ones to be brought back from the dead, and hope to be forgiven of past sins. Just to name a few.
We should have so much more hope today. We live after the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Those three events proved Jesus truly was the one who came to save us all. We live in a time where the power to be released from sin is available to all people. The ability to live life more abundantly is right in front of you. You just have to place your faith and hope in Jesus. Once you have that faith you begin to learn what true hope looks like.
Find Christmas Hope
Jesus is the true reason to have Christmas Hope. Not because you may get some presents or see some loved ones. We need to think back to the day our savior entered the world. Easter often gets viewed as the holiest day and desires to be treated highly. However, without the birth of Christ, we would have no reason to celebrate Easter. So we should view Christmas as an even higher day than the days that it caused. Spend time in prayers of thankfulness. Open your eyes to see how this one-day thousands of years ago changed your life. Beyond that how the birth of one child could set in motion a religion that has shaped our planet. Families have been restored, sick have been healed, lost have been found, and we have been gifted the promise of eternal life in Heaven.
So tomorrow take the time to focus on the true meaning of the holiday. In our modern day, Christmas is often busy and causes people to focus on the wrong things. Do not let pleasing family cause you to keep from pleasing the Lord. Find your Christmas Hope and share it with everyone you encounter. Spread the joy and peace this hope brings you.
Of course, we also realize that December 25th is probably not Jesus’s actual birthday. The Bible does not go into great detail on this fact. Is that really the point though? Truly we should take time daily to think back to the glorious day Jesus was born. Because that is the day that brought us to this very moment. There is only one problem though. We are human and we often neglect the things we should do. So by marking a specific day every year to focus on the birth of our Lord, we are forcing our focus. Sometimes this is just what we need. I just hope we all remember to take advantage of the opportunity.
Thank You For Reading!!!
I hope this article has shown you that the hope found in Christmas is more than just for worldly things. We also want to take a moment and wish you and your family a Merry Christmas. We hope that you have a blessed day. If you can please share this post if you enjoyed it. It truly is the best way for us to get more people to see what we are working on here. Also be sure to check us out on social media. Thanks again, God Bless!
