I watch and I wait. I talk about the year 2020 like it is my nemesis. I don’t think I am alone, for our comments and memes indicate that we all fervently long to turn the calendar on January 1, 2021, and find that life has resumed some degree of normalcy. The coronavirus will have abated, the stores and restaurants will be open, we will regather with friends and family, and we’ll get back to our comfortable lives.

We comfort ourselves with the fact that it’s December, and 2020 will soon be over.

What will happen if the calendar changes, and my circumstances don’t?

People are still getting sick. Schools are still closing (and opening, and closing again). Masks are still mandatory. Toilet paper shelves still empty periodically at a hint of scarcity from the media. Travel is still restricted. Mental illness is still skyrocketing. I’m still isolated from friends and family members.

What then?

Will I sink into despair? Will I rant and rave about injustice and the mishandling of the pandemic by political leaders? Will I lose all hope of things ever returning to “normal”? Will I plod along in my mask, enduring life’s interruptions (sometimes with pity parties and/or temper tantrums!), and grow more weary by the day?

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices…

“O Holy Night“

Did you notice that, for some, the Christmas decorations went up a bit earlier than usual this year? Maybe you were one of them! The Christmas season for many brings a sense of hope, something we all desperately crave as never before.

I have always loved Christmas. I have many fond memories of decorating the tree as a child. It was a task that always seemed to fall to my brother and me. At the time we thought that our mom was “letting” us decorate the tree. Now we know the truth. She was happy to delegate the task to her overeager children!

We would put a vinyl Christmas variety album on the record player and string lights, hang ornaments, and toss oodles of silvery tinsel icicles, all to the accompaniment Perry Como and Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby. Throw in Gene Autrey’s “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and we were good to go!

Our favorite was Johnny Mathis’ “Do You Hear What I Hear?” I can still hear that resounding tenor echo and crackle through the speakers of the massive stereo cabinet.

There was one carol I never quite grasped at the time, and found quite boring, actually…“O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” I didn’t understand the meaning of the song. The tune wasn’t catchy, but, to the contrary, quite mournful. It was the carol that, had I grown up in the digital age, I would have found easy to skip.

I now recognize “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” as a song of hope and expectation. As I’ve matured in my understanding of the lyrics, this great hymn has grown on me, and even become a favorite, but never as much as this year. This year, more than any other, has given many of us at least a taste, if not a large gulp, of “lonely exile,” “gloomy clouds of night” and “envy, strife, and quarrels” (“sad divisions” in some versions of the song).

And more than ever before I’ve longed for the 2nd appearance of Emmanuel, ”God with us,” “Desire of Nations,” “King of Peace,” “Bright and Morning Star.”

As the Jewish people waited and longed for the appearance of their Messiah, so we wait today and long with great hope for the peace He will ultimately bring to His people. Revelation 21 tells us that all death, mourning, crying, and pain will become things of the past. Actually, not even that. It says they “will be no more.” I believe that includes even our memories of those things. We’re not going to sit around in heaven saying, “Remember what 2020 was like? I’m sure glad that’s over!” Our joy will be so full that I suspect even the memories of anything less will be gone!

Hope is why we can make it through today, and tomorrow, and next week and whatever 2021 throws at us.

My pastor preached this past Sunday about hope, and the difference between “hope” in the vernacular and biblical hope.

The way we use the word “hope” in our everyday language is more along the lines of wishful thinking. I hope the line at Starbucks isn’t too long. I hope we can get through the holidays without sickness. I hope the weather is nice tomorrow. I hope I get that book I want for Christmas.

We use the term in broader categories as well, indicating a desire or longing, but without any certainty that what we wish for will become reality. I hope that no one is lonely this Christmas. I hope that everyone is safe and healthy and happy. I hope that businesses can survive and come back from this current crisis. I hope that the new year will bring healing to our nation and world.

“Hope” as used in the Bible is not wishful thinking, but a looking forward with expectant certainty. And “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” beautifully communicates the expectation of a certain thing – the coming of the the One who will right every wrong, and ultimately and finally destroy darkness and mourning and crying and pain and even death.

“But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.”

Micah 7:7

So this Christmas, I wait and I mourn and I lament the current circumstances, but I also hope. I hope and wish that 2021 will be better, that the virus goes away, that things get back to “normal”. But I HOPE in the One Who will make all things new.

“And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’

Also he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.'”

Revelation 21:5

“Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel WILL come to thee, O Israel.”

Is it simply me? Or has 2020 stimulated your hope for something far better than what this world can offer? What are you hoping in or for as this year draws to a close?

If you’re never put your faith in Jesus Christ as the source of true and lasting hope, would you consider watching this video for a better understanding of what that means and how you can experience it?

As always, I would love to hear from you.