A Confident Hope

I know. It’s an odd image for a Christmas post.

It has also been an odd year. I would say more than odd—extraordinary even. 2020 will likely be known as the year COVID-19 took over the world. Even outside a pandemic year, we’ve experienced widescale protests, catastrophic wildfires, and a highly contentious presidential election. And those are just the highlights.

My goal as stated in my Blog name is Encouraging Others Through Words of Hope.

We’ve been through a lot.

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Could be we feel like a child. A child who has experienced something frightening. A dream. An injury. An imagined monster. We aren’t really sure if we can come out of our bedroom. Are things safe out there?

So, we edge to the door and peek around the corner toward Mom and Dad’s room. They’ll bring us comfort. We can count on them to take away the scaries. They’ve proven themselves time and time again to comfort us, take care of boo-boos, wipe away our tears.

We are confident enough to call out, “Mom! Dad! Can I come sleep with you?”

As you ready yourself for Christmas, here’s hope you can count on. Psalm 130 is a Psalm of someone in distress. The author, though sounding desperate, has confidence in his prayer.

“I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits,

And in his word I put my hope.” (Psalm 130:5, NIV)

Like a child, our whole being waits for the Lord. We do this because His word is a living word. Not just a string of letters on a page.

“For the word of God is living and active…” (Hebrews 4:12, NASB)

Jesus left His heavenly home to be here on earth with us. He lived life as a sinless human, the only one worthy to be the sacrifice for our sins. We celebrate His birth at Christmas. We have confidence in Him. That’s why we can join the psalmist in saying, “In His word I put my hope.”

I don’t know if you’ve ever watched an aerial silk performance. I took today’s photo of a young lady performing in uptown Charlotte years ago. Climbing, wrapping, and dropping without the use of safety nets, she portrayed the very essence of confidence in the fabric onto which she held.

Maybe not such an odd image for a Christmas post at all.

I pray you actively wait upon the Lord this Christmas, confident in the hope of His word.

Merry Christmas!

Today’s feature photo comes from a “photo-a-day” challenge I pursued several years ago. The photo inspires the topic. For me, the posts challenge my creativity, writing discipline, and dependence on God for His message. My prayer is that you find hope in God’s Word, and that you’ll share your hope with others.