Is the message of hope just for Christmas cards?

I remember, just about the same time last year, I couldn't wait for 2020 to be over. Being a blind person who compensates for lost vision through touch, I felt like I'd lose out in a "touchless society." Nevertheless, I embraced the "new normal” conditionally, with absolute hope that 2021 would reset the world back to the old way of life. 

It didn't. In fact, from my perspective, 2021 has been more terrifying than 2020. A touchless society was here to stay. The virus caught my family. I had knee surgery, some close relationships were severed, my beloved  bulldog passed, and lots more.

Advent finds me entangled in confusion. A period for reflecting on the first and second coming of Christ, Out of the four messages of Advent: hope, peace, love and joy, hope is the first and the most vital, because without it the other three would be nearly impossible. But what hope? Is hope a message only for Christmas cards?

​Losing Sight of Hope
 
Hope is the desire for something better and is usually associated with our vision of the future. But in 2020, we lost our 20/20 vision, in a figurative sense. It's difficult to hope for a future one can't envision. And, as 2022 seems more volatile, uncertain, and atypical, hope continually diminishes. 
 
Jeremiah's words during the darkest times of Israel are applicable to our desperate world today.
 
But there's one other thing I remember, and remembering, I keep a grip on hope:

GOD's loyal love couldn't have run out. His merciful love couldn't have dried up.
They're created new every morning. How great your faithfulness!
(Lamentations 3:22-23 MSG)

A Hopeful Way to Live is a Day at a Time. 
 
Had I known in 2020 the events I'd go through in 2021, I'd probably take the year off in despair. But I showed up every day not knowing what would come at me, and, as the sun set with a setback, it rose with the hope that set me back in stride. 
 
Navigating through the challenges, I appreciate being in the dark with a ray of hope, rather than being in the light of knowledge slowly slipping into the darkness of despair. After all, we won't need hope if everything we hope for is realized. As Paul says: 

For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?
(Romans 8:24 NKJV)

2021 was bleak, and 2022 may even be worse. But light is brightest when it's darkest. Remember how the wise men were guided to the child Jesus by a star? It had to be dark for them to follow the starlight. But today, we no longer need the star. The embodiment of hope, Jesus, whose birthday we celebrate on Christmas day has been born! He is Emmanuel, God with us, and He lives in our hearts. 
 
The message of hope is not only for Christmas cards, it’s for us to carve in our hearts. It’s not an empty promise used to keep up Christmas traditions. Hope is found in the person of our Lord Jesus who is trust-worthy. 
 
So even if we walk through the valley of the shadows of COVID, of wars, and of unrest, we shouldn't be afraid, for God is with us, Emmanuel, leading and guiding us. 
 
This season, focus on Emmanuel to rekindle hope then share it with others.