Hope

(originally written in 2003)

I got in my car one morning and turned on the radio, heading off on a two-day sales trip to Louisiana.  On most mornings like this, I would have turned on the radio and either listened to the morning news on NPR, or perhaps one of my homemade CD’s of some great Texas music, or I would just simply drive and think about my plans for the coming day.  But that morning seemed different…I didn’t feel like listening to the troubling and wearisome news.  I was tired of thinking about work and business.  Even my favorite music CD’s seemed old and worn out.  Christmas would be here in just a week or so, and I realized that I had yet to pause and think about the meaning of the season.  I needed a dose of Christmas cheer, and I needed it badly.

So I switched the radio to KSBJ, the local Christian station.  I don’t listen to it often, but I know where to find it when I need it.  No more than two seconds after I had tuned in the station, the words of the speaker’s short radio sermon seemed to fly out of the dashboard like missiles aimed directly at my ears.

“Dear friends, if you haven’t pulled out your Bible yet this Christmas season, I urge you to do so soon.  Go back and read those magical words in Luke, Chapter 2.  It’ll sure do your heart some good…”  He then began reading some of the story of the birth of Jesus Christ.

As he read those verses, my mind wandered.  I imagined for a moment what it must have been like for those people living around Bethlehem at that time, over 2000 years ago.  One day they’re simply going about their daily business, trading in the market, herding their goats, sweeping the sand from their doorsteps.  But then overnight, they become close witnesses to the greatest event to ever happen to mankind.  One day they’re living with only their wavering faith in God, who has promised a savior.  The next day the savior is there, living and breathing among them all, in the form of a beautiful newborn baby, proof that the word of God was true, after all those years.

As the radio preacher finished his short sermon, a song came on.  It was a song I’d heard before, “Breath of Heaven” by Amy Grant, also known as “Mary’s Song”.  The song starts slowly and quietly with a beautiful piano entry, then the words,

I have traveled many moonless nights
Cold and weary, with a babe inside
And I wonder what I’ve done
Holy Father you have come
And chosen me now…to carry your son

I am waiting in a silent prayer
I am frightened by the load I bear
In a world as cold as stone
Must I walk this path alone?
Be with me now, be with me now.

I could so easily picture Mary and Joseph as they journeyed through the desert to his hometown of Bethlehem.  What must Mary have been thinking as they traveled together on those cold nights of the journey?  Knowing for a fact that the baby she was carrying was not Joseph’s, not their creation.  Did she worry about Joseph believing her?  Leaving her?  Did anyone believe her?  Was she scared?  Why, out of all the generations of people to have ever walked on the face of the earth since Adam and Eve, was she the one chosen to bear the child of God?

Do you wonder as you watch my face
If a wiser one should have had my place?
But I offer all I am
For the mercy of your plan
Help me be strong
Help me be…
Help me.

And what was Joseph thinking during this time?  Had all of his hopes faded as they walked through the quiet desert together, just the two of them and a pack mule?  I can only imagine he was full of disbelief and perhaps even anger at Mary, wondering who or what could have possibly come between them.  He had already decided weeks before to quietly break off their engagement, to save them both the embarrassment of the situation.  But then one night he had “the dream”, where an angel came to him as he slept, with an unbelievable message.

“Don’t be afraid, Joseph,” the angel had said.  “Go ahead with your marriage to Mary.  For the child within her has been conceived by the Holy Spirit.”

But Joseph was a sensible and practical man.  How could he possibly believe such a wild dream?  Who would ever believe him?  What would his friends and family think when he gave this as an explanation of her pregnancy?  I suspect his mind was full of doubt as they entered the city of Bethlehem.  I can imagine that the two of them hardly spoke at all on that long trip through the desert.

Centuries of mankind living on the earth had passed before this fateful night.  The story of the promise of a savior to man had been passed down for generations.  Only man’s naive faith and hope had kept the promise alive.  For years it was just another fable, told by the elders to the young again and again.  Then one day it was real, a miraculously fulfilled prophesy, a promise made by God and kept by God that would forever change the world.

As I continued my drive down the highway that morning, my appreciation for the season of Christmas became stronger than it had ever been before.  It occurred to me then that Christmas is all about Hope!

Can you imagine what our lives would be like today if Jesus were not yet born?  What if we were still waiting?  It’s not such a far-flung concept.  After all, mankind went for thousands of years having only the promises of God to hold on to.  There was the promise of Jesus, but never the reality of Him, simply an unfulfilled prophesy.  Shift these events forward a few thousand years, and it’s not out of the question that we could be living our lives today much like the residents of Bethlehem, just going about our daily routine, going to work, taking care of business, shuffling our kids around, with only our blind faith in the word of God to get us through.  How would we think of death?  How would we imagine what was to come after this life?  Would this life be all there is?  Would our faith in God still be strong?

And then suddenly tonight, on CNN, we hear of a nighttime spectacle somewhere in the world, with an unusually bright star, dancing in the night, with a tail as big as a kite!  Eyewitness reports rapidly bounce off the satellites and into our living rooms of this “Immaculate Conception” and the birth of the baby they call Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, “God with us”.  Interviews are shown of Joseph, the proud but terribly confused father.  Three allegedly “wise men”, who claim to have seen it all unfold, have hired an agent and are shopping around for the best book deal.  But, HE’S FINALLY HERE!, as promised for so long – to show us how to live, to save us from our sins and to give us hope for life eternal.  What a difference one day can make!

How great it is that Jesus once walked this earth!  We are fortunate to be living after his life on earth and not before it.  I know that through Him we have Hope.  We have salvation.  We have a Holy example of how God wants us to be.  Because he once walked among us, we can believe in life eternal and all the other great promises of God.  Because I know that Jesus lived, everything else in the Bible is therefore substantiated for me, and made real.  And because I know this, I have Hope and salvation for an eternal life with God, and that’s about all we can ask for!

Paul Fisher
December, 2003