25 Days of Advent: Forged for our Hope – Day 13

With steady hands, my husband set the last piece of the roof on top of the gingerbread house. It was mere minutes that had passed before the children were peppering him questions wanting to know if the icing was dry enough for decorating.

His initial response was one long explanation about icing to cookie ratio, drying times, and the weight response by the roofline to the set candy. However, the more they asked, the less patient his answer. He attempted to explain that if the foundation was not firmly set, it would crumble and be crushed. And firmly setting a foundation takes time and patience. His answers were not understood nor respected, and the more he answered, the more his answers were rejected.

There is One who understands the feelings of rejection more than any other. Isaiah prophesied that the coming Messiah would be rejected my His own people. His answers to the church leaders would not be understood nor respected. And the more he answered, the more his answers were rejected. So much so He was hung from some rough boards and pierced with dirty nails.

Isaiah 53:3, He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

His truth was simple: If the foundation of one’s faith was not firmly set, it would crumble. And a firmly set foundation takes time and patience.

And forging.

And His truth has never changed.

The Messiah was not only rejected by His own people, He was rejected by the people who were to love Him the most. We find His rejection in two accounts in the Gospel of John:

John 1:11, He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.

John 7:5, For even his own brothers did not believe in him.

We are forged for our hope when we can stand firm in our foundation of faith in Christ, able to withstand the sore rejection of those who would cast us away because of Christ. Many seek answers but do not believe the truth given so they seek answers elsewhere. In different religions, pills, the bottom of a bottle, in the sheets of a strangers bed.

They seek answers in false gods. But let us remember that many of us too were once there.

Out of fear they seek answers desperate for security. Out of fear they reject the words of the promised Messiah. And out of fear they try to buy their way out of the forging and are crushed by the weight of it all.

But we will not be crushed.

Father, as the heat of your forging presses in, may your Spirit that lives within me press out. May I stand strong when others reject me because of you, and may I not take the timing of your plans as a rejection but your greatest protection. In Jesus name, amen.