Advent Reflection: Hope
By: Lisa Bond, Cambridge Parent and Director of Advancement
A thrill of hope the weary soul rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!
(from “O Holy Night”)
As I walked down the stairs this morning, I felt a heaviness on my shoulders that spread down into my chest. This has been a familiar feeling in 2020. A deep breath filled my lungs as I stepped onto the cold first floor wood.
But then a smile grew on my face as I looked over into the living room to see our Christmas tree glowing in the dim morning light. We were among the many who put up Christmas decorations early this year. We needed “a thrill of hope” for our weary souls.
The Christmas tree ignites a thrill in us that never really dies away. It may fade over the years, but that feeling that kindles in us as we stand back and assess the work of our hands never disappears. Anticipation is built into the Christmas tree experience. Driving to get the tree (or ascending the attic steps)... Propping it up in its holder and the sense of relief when it does, in fact, fit in our living room… Placing the lights on the tree, then the ornaments…
With each step, we draw back and look with wonder and joy and some apprehension to see if the tree and the mood it creates are what we imagined them to be.
It was imagination that birthed the whole concept of the Christmas tree. According to church history, and likely some good story telling, Martin Luther was walking along the road on Christmas Eve when he was awestruck by the twinkling of snow reflecting light on the treetops. He set out to recreate this experience for his own family by attaching lit candles to an evergreen in their home.
Wonder and imagination then gave rise to shared experience. What makes the Christmas tree so transcendent now is its universality. We all do it a little differently, but most of us share in this annual tradition.
My family admittedly hurried the anticipation along this year. 2020 has been a hard year for so many, and trimming the tree offered us a visual manifestation of hope in our home.
As we placed ornaments on the tree, we thought back and reflected and laughed. We realized our kids have grown and matured in so many ways (and I don’t just mean their handmade ornament skills). We remembered people we’ve lost and experiences we’ve had.
The tree provides this wonderful mix of longing and joy, already and not yet. Hope. Hope is the tension we experience while we wait.
But Christian hope isn’t optimism or wishful thinking. Optimism is based on our circumstances, on what’s happening now or the happiness we can manufacture from it.
Christian hope looks backward to inform what’s to come. We look at the character of God, how He is unchanging, completely loving, and capable of doing anything He determines to be right and good. We reflect on His past faithfulness to us and others throughout history and scripture, and this drives our perspective of the future. He has always and will always do what He says He’ll do. Even His term for Himself, “I am,” is a mysterious, unconjugated, tenseless word that translators of every language have struggled to capture.
While we’re hung up in our present, regretting the past, and fearing the future, our God is eternal and unbound by time. Yet He invites us to look back and remember. The writer of Psalm 77 encourages us to reflect on what God has done.
I will remember the deeds of the Lord;
yes, I will remember your wonders of old.
I will ponder all your work,
and meditate on your mighty deeds.
Psalm 77:11-12 (NIV)
So, during this Advent season, a season of hope and expectation, we look way back and remember the faithful God who kept His promise to send a Savior and King. We look back to Martin Luther and God’s gift to him in experiencing those twinkling lights.
But what about recent history? Will you stop and consider the ways God has been faithful this past year, even though it has been hard? Here at Cambridge, we celebrate three months of on-campus learning in the midst of a global pandemic. Our children have flourished in spite of the many obstacles thrown at them, and I have learned much from their resiliency and flexibility.
How about you? Will you stop and consider the wonders God has done in 2020?
Looking back at God’s past faithfulness gives us hope in the present for the future restoration God promises.