Hope: He Is for You

Today, I’m wearing my favourite Christmas jumper. It’s got the word HOPE in big letters across the front and, inside the ‘O’, is the outline of the nativity. I love it! It feels to me that, into a dark world that needs hope so badly and yet seems to offer many alternatives – some relatively harmless, some not so - this is where the deepest, richest hope in the universe lies: with the birth of Jesus.

I love that Jesus is described as ‘Immanuel’, which means ‘God with us’. Because that’s exactly who He is. We’re not alone; we were never intended to be alone. The most hopeful truth there is lies in the reality that I can’t generate either my own salvation or the richest meaning to life. Indeed, Christianity is the only worldview out there that says we can’t actually make life work ourselves. We need God to come and rescue us.

I often think about Psalm 40 (especially verses 1-3) which talks about God lifting us out of the slimy pit. He has to do it for us because we can’t do it for ourselves. We’ll all have a uniquely different version in our own lives of what created all that slime and how we fell into that particular pit, and we may all have different ways of trying to get out of it. But the truth is that, without God, all the scrabbling and digging and fighting and hard work we put in to trying to sort ourselves out so often just seems to somehow make things worse. Psalm 40 simply tells us the truth: we won’t be able to get ourselves out. We need God to come and do it.

So, He does (Luke 2:11). God came to us, as a completely human baby, to rescue us from lives that can never be fully whole without Him.

Does that mean we’re only ‘allowed’ to do religious things or enjoy ‘nice’ Christian activities? Does that mean that if I enjoy the delights of Christmas celebrations with colleagues or friends or family, I’m somehow not being holy enough? No! We’re supposed to be alive, to live fully while we’re alive. God gives us all kinds of good gifts: friends, adventures, foods, pursuits, and hobbies. He wants us to experience the goodness of being alive in this world that He made. In short, we’re allowed to have fun!

But we’re not actually designed to ‘do life’ without God. After all, we were made by and for God. He came in such a costly and sacrificial way to rescue us so it makes sense we can only really experience life in all its fullness with Him (John 10:10). That’s real hope that lasts forever.

Tomorrow, I’ll wear my other favourite Christmas jumper. This one also has the outline of the nativity with the words in capital letters: True Story. I’ve had so many comments from people who don’t think it is and love the conversations that follow.

And PS – I do also have a fluffy red Christmas jumper with a dancing bear on it!