25 Days of Advent: Forged for our Hope – Day 6

There upon the dining room table lay my bible. Opened to the last place I read, my eyes slowly adjusted to the black inked words pressed upon the thin-skinned page. I picked it up clutching it to my chest while balancing a hot, freshly brewed coffee thinking it would be a shame to drop either.

To focus on the words was difficult for my mind still felt blurry. And Christ’s parables seem more akin to riddles than stories at this time in the morning. And I would rather be lying on the sofa idle just focusing on the hot, freshly brewed coffee.

I tried to imagine what it would be like to stand in the crowd listening to the Messiah as he painted pictures with His carefully crafted words knowing anytime I asked a question, He would answer me back with one. This is often how the conversations are between He and I.

And He does this with great purpose for our human nature is one that seeks to know all, but we are a stubborn lot. We have a keen way of complicating matters that need not be complicated creating mass areas of grey within our moral compass. Our human nature is to rebel upon the feeling of being challenged with our pride swelling like a storm cloud within our chest. All part and parcel of the human experience that Christ knows well.

So it was promised that the coming Messiah would minister to our human nature in a way that only He knew would work: in parables. A simple story that would touch the core of our morality teaching us deep spiritual truths:

Psalm 78:2-4, I will open my mouth with a parable;
I will utter hidden things, things from of old—
things we have heard and known,
things our ancestors have told us.
We will not hide them from their descendants;
we will tell the next generation
the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,
his power, and the wonders he has done.

A promise made, a promise fulfilled.

Matthew 13:34-35, Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet:

“I will open my mouth in parables,
I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.”

We are forged for our hope when we know His Word. The scriptures are our very lifeline and direct connection to the Messiah who so longs for us to come into conversation with him. The scriptures are akin to love letters so patiently scribed so that we would not miss anything of great importance.

And the forging comes when the scriptures, Christ’s simple stories, touch the core of our morality testing the deepest of things- lies, fears, sins, and truths- that have embedded themselves within our soul in order for us to know the deepest of spiritual truths.

Father, test my heart and cleanse my soul. Even when I struggle with the ‘want to’, have me know your words and rely upon their truth when the forging comes so that my hope may be strengthened for your purpose. In Jesus name, amen.

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