Hope Is Alive

I often feel "it"
when we approach occasions
that commemorate
Jesus' birth or resurrection---
an underlying excitement
I sometimes can't explain.

Is it all the festivities?
Spending time with
people I care about?
The enjoyable traditions
or nostalgic memories?
The joyful worship services
and celebrations?

I think it is all of them.
Plus something else.

I feel Hope.

I remember how Hope entered a world of chaos and desperation.
How hope changed history and human hearts.

I remember how Hope could not stay away from us, entered our world as a crying infant,
faced the challenges that we face---hurt feelings, hard days, cruel rejection.

Then, after being tortured and killed at human hands---still---Hope did not desert us,
did not leave us with simply a body-filled tomb where we could mourn
and question what went wrong.
 
Hope hints to us that someday, somehow,
all sickness and heartache will be healed, what hurts now will hurt no longer,
all that is wrong in this world will be made right in His.
He who was too powerful to let his story end in a grave will,
surely,
not let our story end in hopelessness.
 
Hope entered a world that battered and crushed him,
but Hope was resurrected---
Hope is alive.

That's why I am excited.