ADVENTure week 1: Hope

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. Isaiah 9:2
Advent is a time of waiting, a time of expectation for what is to come. In four weeks, we will be celebrating Christmas... when God revealed true love through His Son, Jesus.
Hope is what the promised coming of the Messiah gave to the children of Israel... a light to shine in the darkness... were you ever afraid of the dark when you were a kid? Did you have a nightlight? It spread a light through the room, so that the fear and dread would ease... As adults, we get anxious for things, we fear the unknown or things that we can't control... God is the light in our "darkness". He gives us hope for the future, hope to face the unknown and hope that things will work out as they should.
The first candle of Advent is lit as a symbol of God's light shining in the darkness... a hope where once there was none. We have that hope today, and we can share it with others who don't know or understand that hope!
O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer Our spirits by Thine advent here Disperse the gloomy clouds of night And death's dark shadows put to flight. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel.






Photo credit: "Adventkranz" by Benjamin Nussbaum, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license