Advent Adventure 1: Hope

Hope is a feeling of expectation and the desire for a certain thing to happen.

I think over the past 9 months we have collectively experienced a decline in hope. Well, at least I have. It started with school abruptly ending, graduation not happening as planned, summer vacations being cancelled. The losses have continued to pile up and as time has marched on we have had less and less to look forward to. The waning of healthy expectations has left us all feeling disappointed and jaded.

So how do we find hope when the ability to plan and create expectation has been taken away?

At Christmas time we often think of snow flakes, sparkles and twinkle lights. We want the feeling of a magical winter wonderland. With this frame of mind it is easy to forget what we are truly celebrating. The hope of baby Jesus began with -a startling announcement by a celestial being -to a thirteen year old girl -who wasn’t even married yet. The expectation of a baby is usually full of promise and joy. The beginning of this story was not like that. God chose to bring his son to a young woman, pledged to be married. The pregnancy wasn’t planned and in fact seemed to be premature in her relationship with Joseph.

The angel said: “Mary, you have nothing to fear. God has a surprise for you: You will become pregnant and give birth to a son and call his name Jesus. He will be great, be called “Son of the Highest.’ The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David; He will rule Jacob’s house

forever - no end, ever to his kingdom.” .... And Mary said: “Yes I see it all now: I’m the Lord’s maid, ready to serve. Let it be with me just as you say.” Luke 1:29-33, 38.

Imagine being greeted by a 10 foot tall body of light. You turn around from doing the dishes and there he is. I imagine Mary might have jumped back and stared for a minute. What was it? Was it a giant man? Was it an alien? The creature (an angel) greeted her saying: “God has a surprise for you.” What kind of surprise she may have asked? “You will become pregnant and give birth to a baby boy. He is God’s son and you will name him Jesus.” I can only imagine the next series of queries Mary may have had: “What? Pregnant, but I can’t, I never? God’s son. The one foretold by the prophet Isaiah. NO? Call him Jesus? I thought my first son would be named, Joseph.”

The story is incredible. Mary takes the angel’s message in like a beat in a movie and then exhales acceptance: “Yes, I see it all now: I’m the Lord’s maid, ready to serve.” Mary wasn’t a great heroine of a stage play. She was a real human being born into the Jewish tradition. She had grown up learning the great stories of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. She was a young girl preparing for marriage to a carpenter named Joseph. Mary was a real person who’s expectations for life were upended and she responded with wholehearted acceptance.

As you prepare for Christmas what would it mean for you to respond like Mary did?