Hope

Advent.  Week One.  Hope.
I love our church.  We call ourselves fully evangelical, gentle charismatics and, I add, beautifully litergical.  I love that.  I didn't grow up with communion every Sunday, group recitation of The Lord's Prayer or much reference to the Christian Calendar.  I know that some people find these things to be ritual without much meaning.  But I find them, in balance, to be really grounding.  They help me to focus.
This week is the first week of advent.  The week to focus on hope.  Hope.  Hope for a Savior to come.  Hope for His Kingdom to come. 
Christmas is a time of hopelessness for many.  Even for me, who doesn't have any major losses or difficulties at the moment, Christmas in a poignant time.  I feel very softened, sensitive.  I avoid Christmas pageants.  Too many bright and shiny children with their proud parents beaming from the audience or back stage, mouthing the memorized lines along with them, snapping pictures.  And I am not them.  Apparently those moments are not for me to have.  I am reminded of loved ones lost.  We went to fund raiser last night for children in Africa who have nothing.  I hear pleas on the radio for more donations for the food bank.  And yet, hope shines through.  And that's what I love about Christmas.  That's be beauty of the message of Jesus.  That through the hurt, through the pain, through the doubt...hope remains.  So this week I hope cling to hope.  Communion, a candle burning, a prayer that His Kingdom come on Earth as in Heaven.  Hope.