Hope

How many broken promises have you experienced?  How many promises have you [yourself] broken? Yeah, I know – let’s don’t go there.  The last words from God in the Old Testament – “lest I come and smite the earth with a curse” (Malachi 4:6) – were followed by 400 years of silence! Those silent years must have felt as if God had abandoned His people, like a broken promise. Maybe it felt like Narnia under the continual curse of ice, snow and cold – hopelessness. A teenage girl named Mary knew differently: “He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to His offspring forever.” (Luke 1:54-55). She was not detoured of heart by God’s long period of silence; she remembered The God of Promise never breaks His!  The angel left her with hopeful exuberance. The child she would deliver would deliver her! What might it have been like to live in that period of time: to see God’s Promise of The Messiah born, to experience “God with us” in relationship with people, to witness Truth unfold in the reality of life! ‘Tis the Season to remember with Mary. Rejoice in Hope!