Hope for a weary world

 I was reminded yesterday of these lines from the beloved Christmas carol:

“A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices,

For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn”

We are a very weary world right now. A world desperately in need of hope. We need a reason to rejoice. Not just hope in a vaccine or an end to a pandemic, though those would be great. What is hope beyond that, and before that? A hope when it doesn't look like anything will change in the near future. A hope for today. A hope for tomorrow. A hope for health and wholeness. A hope for equality and justice for all. A hope for respect and grace in differences. A hope in the midst of a year of loss, of many griefs, of ongoing stress. The world is weary. So, so tired. There are likely few who have not been impacted in one way or another. We long for a new and glorious morn. Everywhere we read messages of readiness to leave 2020 behind; a longing to step into something new, to be able to take a deep breath of something fresh, to emerge into a new perspective and new physical circumstances. We are more than ready for it.

But what if it doesn't come, or doesn't come soon enough or doesn't happen in the way we want it to? In reality, we have not suffered like many from generations and centuries before us. Despite what Covid has cost us, it's not nearly the cost that others in centuries past and even currently throughout the world have suffered in disease, war, persecution and poverty. In reality, we don't have it that bad. 

And yet hope is crucial. Without it, we don't survive. I included a part of this verse on my Christmas card, because it seems so fitting for this season. We are all in need of joy, peace and HOPE. 

 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.   Romans 15:13

This Christmas what does it look like to overflow with hope? To be filled with joy and peace? I've become very aware recently that joy and peace, and even hope, can coexist with grief and loss and unmet expectation. I do experience joy in my days; in the giggles and excitement of a 2 year old nephew over trains and chocolate. In Maggie's exuberant dashes around the snow-covered lawn. In long days of cookie-making with family, Christmas music playing in the background, tables laden with a plethora of delicacies, which I haven't experienced in 5 years. In the slowness of mornings and the way snow showers calm over my soul. In knowing freedom from condemnation. In grace in restoration.

At the same time I hold some significant aches:  Family that won't be together for Christmas. Not being able to meet my newly-born niece. Loss upon loss and unknown upon unknown due to Covid. Unmet desires for intimacy and connection. Questioning where I belong. Close friends who are on the other side of the world. 

    There is joy. 

    There is grief. 

    There is peace. 

    There is unsettledness. 

    There is desire. 

    There is hope.

Yes, there is hope that some of these desires will be met physically, in this world, now. And yet for true peace, I have to hold them all with very open hands. Not grasping, not demanding. But TRUSTING the God of hope to bring about his good. Trust in the future he has for me, not my version of it, whether that's tomorrow or next month, during this present season of Covid and sabbatical that looks different than expected, or 5 years from now. Trust in his love and his goodness, his faithfulness to his promises and to me. My part out of that verse is to trust. That's it. The rest is God's part – to fill with joy and peace which overflows into hope.

I long for the thrill of hope in which this weary soul and weary world can rejoice. Maybe right now, circumstantially, it doesn't seem possible. But internally it is possible because of Love. Love which was born to dwell among us. Love that experienced what we experience and felt what we felt. Love that was born to bring light to darkness and hope to despair. A hope in Love to conquer, that Love's desire is for joy and peace: between nations and families, between political and racial divides, between any relationship. On a world-wide scale and in every individual, in the interior and hidden places every heart.

Into what corner of your heart does Love want to spark hope?