2003-01-08 - Hope

Colossians 1:5 (NLT) You do this because you are looking forward to the joys of Heaven—as you have been ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News.

This Christmas was different. I experienced pain. Forty-three years of a Christmas Eve breakfast tradition with my mom and dad ended this year. No hustling the kids to get ready to go to see Grandmother’s home. No more anticipation of her great cooking. No more enjoyment of companionship with the family. No more keeping the kids out of the gifts. No more anything. I was empty. A lifelong family tradition was yanked from under my feet.

Mom has Parkinson’s disease and is in a Skilled Nursing Home. My family went to see her Christmas Eve morning. It was not the same. But I was thankful she was having a good morning, and I am thankful that she is still with us. I was not thankful for her condition. I know the verse that says to “rejoice in ALL things,” but I could not rejoice. But I could hope.

I am all for traditions. Ask my kids what we are doing for any holiday, and they can tell you. It has been the same for twenty years. Traditions give us stability, but they don’t give us hope. Our hope does not come from our earthly traditions. Our hope rests in the knowledge that this earth is not our home; rather, our true home is in Heaven. Our real banquet table is waiting for us there.

Jesus is the Hope of the world, and our hope lies in our final home with Him. That hope got me through this painful Christmas - this knowledge that one day my entire family will once again sit at a great banquet table, rejoicing and celebrating with the Hope of the world.

Revelation 21:4 (NLT) He will remove all of their sorrows, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. For the old world and its evils are gone forever.

Because of the baby’s birth that we just celebrated, there will be no more tears, no more sorrows, no more death, no more crying or pain. I believe that hope. I cling to it. God is good.

Lord, thank you again for your Son Jesus. Through Him, we can eat at the great banquet table. Help us focus on the true Hope. In His name, Amen.

David Massey

david@e-devotionals.org
http://www.cfdevotionals.org
http://www.e-devotionals.org