Awakening to the Wonder of Christmas, Advent Week One

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us)." 

Matthew 1:23 

For more than 700 years God’s people waited to see the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy of one who was to be born to a virgin and known by the name Immanuel, the one who was to inherit the throne of Israel’s greatest king, David. Now, the announcements of the child who was conceived in a young virgin woman fanned into bursting flame the hopes that had been smouldering for eons.


Mary exulted in anticipation: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour …. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his offspring forever.” (Luke 1:46, 54, 55)

“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,” exclaimed the priest, Zechariah (Luke 1:68).

“Blessed are you among women,” cried his wife, Elizabeth, when the child’s mother came to visit her. “And blessed is the fruit of your womb!” (Luke 1:42)

This hope sent shepherds racing through dark hills at night to see the child whom the angels proclaimed was the Savior (Luke 2:13). Simeon, a devout Israelite, laid eyes upon him and declared, “My eyes have seen your salvation!” (Luke 1:30) And Anna, a prophetess, spread the news of him “to all who were waiting for the redemption of Israel.” (Luke 1:38)

Hope, long-awaited, was stirred.

What hope does the season of Christmas stir up in you? Does it spill out of you and cause you to burst into praise of God like Zechariah? Does it move you to celebrate like Elizabeth? To rejoice like Mary? Does it fill you like it filled Anna, so much that it pours over into the lives of the people around you? 

Or are you without hope? Has your hope been quietly but steadily smothered by the cares of life, the disappointments and losses of the years? Is the Christmas season, the call to revive your hope, best when it’s over, in your estimation?

The hope of the birth of the child, we are told, was not just for the people of Israel in ancient times. It is a hope that is for “all nations” (Matt. 12:21); it is “good news of great joy” for “all the people” (Luke 2:10). Jesus, who is the Incarnation of God, came to this earth to live among us and to be “God with us”.

The hope that we are offered is given to us by God as a gift. It cannot be conjured up by our own efforts (Rom. 15:13). It comes from assurance that, regardless of where we find ourselves this very day, God is with us – with you and me. That the King of kings, the One who is the light of the world, has given us his light (John 1:9), and we are no longer people who live in darkness. It is also the hope of the fulfillment of all the promises and prophecies yet unfulfilled. 

As incredible as it seems, God is “at hand”; he is as close as an assent of his worthiness from you. If you are registering on the scale of “hopeless” this first week of December don’t do another thing or take another step. Bring your emptiness, your darkness, your hopelessness before him right now, and ask him for a renewal of hope in his presence with you and his promises for the future. 

This week we lit the first candle of our advent wreath to symbolize that our God is with us. He has filled us with hope; he has scattered our darkness and traded our desolations for joy. And therefore, we will praise him.