From Headlines to Hope

     We live at an incredible time in history!  With technology, news spreads faster than ever before.  Traveling around the world in minutes or even seconds in some cases and at the click of a button we can view things as they are happening!  Along with that comes a heavy weight at least it does for me.  I talk to others who say the same thing.  It would be so much easier to just live with my head in the sand and claim ignorance.

     For me personally, I've learned to take News in small doses.  If I get hooked on a topic and start following it, then I see another headline that intrigues me and another and that one leads to yet another!  You get the picture, I follow way too many rabbit trails! Before I know it, this cloud of gloom hangs over me.  Just picture Eeyore.          

Last Thursday as I started up my laptop and clicked to go online.  CNN's set to come up as my home page, so before I click on anything else that's what pops up.  The headline caught my attention: "Debate Over School Safety Revs Up After Teacher Deaths" With a heavy heart my curiosity got the best of me and so I read part of the article (small doses). What caught my attention was the school shooting took place at a Middle School and the shooter was a 12 year old boy.  That hit home the instant I read it.  My son is in Middle School and although he'll be 13 in two weeks, he is still in fact a 12 year old boy.  What if my son was faced with a fellow student with a gun?  What are the possibilities that he could be faced with something like that?    

On almost any given day I start the morning off by listening to some music and a cup of coffee to help me wake up.  As early as October I start adding a little Christmas music to the mix.  On this particular morning I just so happened to put on some Christmas music.  So to the back drop of the gloom and doom I heard the music that offers us hope in a world stained with evil.  It was instrumental music, but I could hear the words in my mind.  "The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord. ...And He shall reign forever and ever.  King of Kings and Lord of Lords and He shall reign forever and ever..." 

Suddenly I realized that in the midst of darkness that there is hope.  One day all the wrongs will be made right.  Sin will be done away with!  It also became clear to me that the darker and more evil this world becomes the more brilliantly the light of the hope that we have in Jesus shines!  Not that I would ever want the evil in this world to increase.  But isn't it amazing that Jesus came as a baby, lived a life with absolutely no sin,that He died a sinners crucifixion even though He had never done a single thing wrong in His life and He descended into Hell? If the story ended there, He would have just been a good man who made a mark in History.  But it does not end there!  He came back to life!  He was resurrected by the power of God!  Because Jesus was victorious over death, we have HOPE!  When the headlines scream of death and destruction we have hope!  When cancer strikes, we have hope! When homes fall apart, we have hope!   When it just seems like things can't get any worse, we have HOPE!

Christmas is so much more than the giving of gifts.  It's celebrating that God loved us so much He sent Jesus, born as a baby to bring hope and peace in a world of suffering and sorrow.  I think it's no coincidence that I just studied about Adam and Eve and the first sin.  After they sinned they were cursed, the earth too and all of creation was cursed because of sin.
   
But look at these words from a popular Christmas song: "...No more let sin and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found, far as the curse is found" from Joy to the World by Issac Watts

Putting it simply and honestly, I am so filled with gratitude, joy and hope because God loved humanity so much that He sent Jesus.  I eagerly await the day when the curse of sin will be lifted from all of creation!  If I did not have this hope in my humanness I would give up in despair.  But I do have a hope that goes beyond any partying or friends or any high that could ever begin to give me an escape from hard times.  

I'll finish with this word of hope from the Bible.  It's found in II Corinthians 4:6-9 (NLT)

"For God, who said, "Let there be light in the darkness," has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.  We have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure.  This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves."  We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed.  We are perplexed, but not driven to despair.  We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God.  We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed."

     

Hope shines out, even in the midst of death and the curse. This picture was actually taken in a cemetery.        "O, death where is thy sting? O, grave where is thy victory?" I Cor. 15;55