The Light of Hope

Isaiah 9:2
By Harold Dinsmore, M.Div.
© 2008 Harold Dinsmore

                   What is the heart and intent of Advent?  Most of us think that it actually begins with celebration.  It doesn’t begin with a shopping spree or with the robust energy of the Americanized holiday.  Advent is surrounded with a community of hurt.

               It begins with a community of people who know grief and pain.  It begins with a people who were dealt heavy blows of sorrow and anguish.  But this community knows to whom to address its pain.  They can remember generation upon generation who called upon the name of God to relieve their hurt.

               Thus this community is one which profoundly expresses its hurt to the One who they do not doubt is in supreme control of things……they then may be considered a community of hope.  They are a people who passionately believe that this trouble will come to a sudden stop when He returns to nullify the hurt and establish His kingdom of well-being for those who have endured and expressed the hurt.