25 Days of Advent: Forged for our Hope – Day 1

As we prepare to celebrate the greatest gift ever bestowed upon mankind, many will find themselves knee-deep in the murky waters of their hope. We will reflect upon the year that has nearly come to pass with a mix bag of sentiments and emotions. There is much we have been forced to face and much we have had to let go. There were times to mourn and times to dance. There we times of joy and times of chance.

But in each and all of the precious moments that have come to pass, not one slipped by without a promise of something greater to come. Not one passed without hope being forged within us through the situations and circumstances we faced in this world.

Forging is a process involving the shaping of metal using the heat of compressive forces. We, as God’s children, are akin to the metal for we are God’s instruments to share the Gospel of Jesus to a broken and dying world. But in order for us to be strengthened and used to our greatest ability, we must first be forged by the heat. The heat used to compress us are the trials we face in this life.

Romans 8:24-25, For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

When we come to the end of the Old Testament, we are left with the final words of the prophet Malachi. He has left the Israelites with powerful words laced with a true and pure promise: the day of The Lord is coming. There lies a great sense that they are to hold on to their hope upholding the law of God’s servant Moses.

But the Israelites hope was put to a most strenuous test. It was four hundred years of time that passed between Malachi’s final words and, with the turn of an onion-skin page in our bible, the Gospel of Matthew revealing the genealogy of Jesus Christ. Could one truly ponder and put into perspective the weight upon God’s people as they endured four hundred years of deafening silence from heaven? Not one prophet to be God’s mouth piece, not one leader to nurture the people as they faced the trials of this world.

But now we know the truth: The day of The Lord is coming and it began with the miraculous birth of a baby boy who was both man and God. And it is because of this truth that we know the forging of hope births life.

In our faulty, crippled, human frailty, we struggle with the tests and trials put upon us. We struggle-two fisted- to tightly grip our last fragments of endurance. We move forward head down, back bent, and eyes closed against the oppressive force of sin in order to go forward for our hope.

And the forging for hope often requires more than we feel we have to give. But if we can trust anything, like the widow of Zarephath scraping oil from the bottom of her jar, we can trust that what we need will be found nestled in the bottom of our spiritual well. The forging of hope requires us to remember that The Lord’s mercy is unending.

So let us prepare our souls, for the miracle is coming. Oh beloved, do you not perceive it? The miracle is coming! Let us be faithful and be forged for our hope, holding tightly to His promise: His very best is yet to come.

Father, as I am being forged against the grain of this world, may your hope burn greater within me. Your promise is the foundation of my faith and, with a heart of gratefulness, I turn to you- the only one who can fulfill my hope. In Jesus name, amen.

 

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