DAY SEVEN:  THE SOUND OF HOPE

Hope is one of the most precious things we possess.

We need to fiercely guard and protect it because, without it, what we see in front of us is the only page of the book with which to draw our conclusions, when, in reality, there are many more pages and a beautiful ending scripted by the greatest of Authors.

Hope feeds us the vision and energy we need to sustain us through even the most difficult of circumstances.

In relation to our theme for week two, “Do You Hear What I Hear,” and the focus for first week of Advent,” hope,” I ask the question,

IF HOPE HAD A SOUND, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

In 1863, with the American Civil War still raging, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a poem called “Christmas Bells.”

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, goodwill to men!

These words inspired the familiar Christmas song, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.” 

Longfellow had plenty of reason to despair.

His wife, Fannie, had tragically died just two years before he wrote these words after her dress caught on fire. He tried his best to extinguish the fire, even using his own body, but she suffered severe burns and died the next morning. Henry Longfellow’s face was severely burned, causing him to be unable to attend his own wife’s funeral. He grew a beard to hide his burned face and at times feared he would be sent to an asylum because of his tremendous grief.

He penned the words of his poem on Christmas Day, when just weeks before, his oldest son had been severely wounded from the war, with an injury that nearly took his life and had risk of causing paralysis.

His words reflect his despair and are some of the darkest words you might find in a Christmas carol, but, then, at the very end, there is the sound of hope that gives light to this honest account of his world.

And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;

“For hate is strong,

And mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;

The Wrong shall fail,

The Right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men.”

Longfellow’s hope sounded like Christmas bells, preaching to his heart and reminding him his God was not dead and still in control despite the darkness he saw all around him.

When I asked the question, “What does hope sound like?” people responded in many ways, from silence to battle cries, showing how personal our views of hope are.

I think of Aslan in The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe. Susan and Lucy are despairing because their friend, their hope, is dead. But just as they turn to accept defeat, the sound of stones cracking cause them to turn and see their hope rise again.

For them, hope roared.

WHAT DOES HOPE SOUND LIKE TO YOU THIS CHRISTMAS?

Christmas is the birth of our living hope, according to 1 Peter 1:3.

This eternal, precious hope is alive and resides within us! 

This is what we can resonate to a world that desperately needs to hear hope.

It’s not a “fake it ’til you make it” mindset but the ability to step back and recognize your story isn’t finished yet. 

In Corrie ten Boom’s poem, “Life Is But A Weaving,” she describes how our lives are like a tapestry. If you look at the underside of the tapestry, it is a mess of strings and knots that look chaotic and pointless.

But if you turn the tapestry around, you see a beautiful masterpiece that is being woven together, thread by thread, with the dark threads being just as essential as the threads of gold and silver. 

We have hope because one day we will see how our tapestry was divinely and perfectly woven.

You are His masterpiece in process. 

A.W. Tozer said,

“Faith is confidence in the character of God, and hope is the sweet anticipation of desirable things promised but not yet realized.”

The sweet anticipation.

Sing it this Christmas.

Sing out this sweet anticipation, knowing,

He is with you.

He is for you.

His hope within you roars like a lion over a cold world.

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