But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of
God and keep it!”
Said the night wind to the little lamb
Do you see what I see
Way up in the sky little lamb
Do you see what I see
A star, a star
Dancing tonight
With a tail as big as a kite
With a tail as big as a kite
Can you see that hope has come when you look inside this
baby’s eyes
Emmanuel, Emmanuel
God is with us
Said the king to the people everywhere
Listen to what I say
Pray for peace people everywhere
Listen to what I say
The child, the child
Sleeping in the night
He will bring us goodness and light
He will bring us goodness and light
When you look to Jesus, do you see hope? You do? Great!
But…hope in what? Take moment to pause, even write down all the things you have
hope in through Jesus.
What did you come up with? Hopefully a big list, because
there is so much to hope for in Jesus! Because without Jesus there isn’t much
hope.
Jesus is our game changer, he literally changes our life,
our after-life, our reality. Often times we tend to think only on one side of
the hope in Jesus and that usually is the hope for eternal life in paradise
with Him. But that is one part of the picture, an important part, but only one
part.
Yes one day there will be no more suffering, no more pain,
no more death and we will live perfectly with our God, as we see depicted in
Revelation 21. There is great hope in this future reality, but what about now?
Of course there is hope in Jesus right now, hope for a
better life filled with the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). A hope to
walk with God everyday through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. All of us who
follow Christ are given this reality, but this reality takes much determination
and discipline, for it does not come naturally. This is a skill that needs work
because as the world around us is hostile toward the Light and Truth of God.
When we choose to listen to the way the world operates, we
are not walking with God, not having hope in Jesus, but rather listening to and
following ourselves.
The world operates out of chaos and discord. When we
respond with worrying, stress, malice, annoyance, sharpness, harden-hearts, we
have lost our sight, we have lost our Lord-even if momentarily.
See what Jesus did when he came to this world; he brought a
new way of life. Not one filled with harshness, anger or stress, but one filled
with Him. This new way of life is living in the Kingdom of Heaven or the
Kingdom of God, which Jesus established right here on Earth. Is it perfect or
complete, no not yet, but it has commenced. And as a follower of Jesus, you
have a choice to have hope in Jesus or hope in the way the world operates.
As we continue to prepare for Christmas, let us turn back
to the lyrics of this song to close:
“Can you see that hope has come when you look inside this
baby’s eyes?
Emmanuel, Emmanuel
God is with us”
Yes, God is with us. God is with you and there is much hope
in that!
Dear Lord, give us eyes only for You. Help us not to run to
broken ways to live, but to live through Your strength, purpose and love. When
things look bleak, help us to remember that when You entered the world, it too
looked very bleak. However, You changed everything and there is much hope
through You. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
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