Christmas Hope

Hi Mom,

Merry Christmas! I hope this next week will be filled with opportunities to serve and bless the lives of others. What a wonderful experience to be serving a mission during the Christmas season. I would imagine it gives renewed strength and hope in the work you are doing.

Christmas is a season of hope and wonder. Sometimes however, I think people confuse the concept of hoping with wishing. For instance most kids have a particular gift they hope for, and they wonder if they are going to get it. We all hope not to get another fruitcake from the relatives, everyone except Dad that is, and we wonder if they will recognize it later in the backyard garden as a decorative boulder.

In these contexts, hope is merely a form of wishing. But the true spirit of hope at Christmastime has a much deeper and richer meaning. The hope of Christmas denotes an expectation with certainty. Christmas hope is a confident assurance that something will happen. It is a hope that you can hang on to when the rest of life seems shaky.

Christmas hope is thousands of years old, rooted in the history of the Jews. God had promised them a Messiah who would be their deliverer. They relied on this hope when they were enslaved by Pharaoh in Egypt. The promise of the Messiah also sustained them during the invasion of Israel when many were taken captive and transported to Assyria and when Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews exiled to Babylon. And, during the early lifetime of Jesus, with the Jews suffering under the tyranny of the Roman government, they anxiously waited for the Messiah to lead a political revolt.

The birth of Christ was the fulfillment of God's promise to send a Messiah. But few people recognized it as that. Their oversight is understandable. They were expecting the arrival of a conquering hero. They didn't imagine that their Deliverer would come as a baby. They wanted to see Him standing tall, holding a sword in His outstretched hand. They weren't expecting an infant squirming in a hay-strewn feeding trough.

Even when He grew to be a man, few people recognized Jesus as the Messiah. The people wanted relief from Roman oppression, but Christ told them how to be free from sin and guilt. They wanted financial prosperity, but Christ spoke of success in terms of being reconciled with God. They wanted political peace, but Jesus offered spiritual peace. He wasn't what they were looking for--but the fact remains that Heavenly Father delivered on His promise to send what they needed, whether they realized it or not.

Now, some two thousand years later, God is still in the promise-keeping business. The scriptures contain promises that Heavenly Father has made an not forgotten:

- We can turn to Him in times of crisis;
- He will provide for us in times of need;
- We are His childldren

Skeptics might say that these are empty promises and nothing more than wishful thinking. But the hope of Christmas proves the skeptics wrong. These are the promises of the same God who kept his pledge to send a Messiah. The God who invaded earth with His presence on that first Christmas night to fulfill His promise is the same God who can fulfill His promises to you.

Heavenly Father has proved Himself to be reliable. He can be trusted. It is in our darkest moments in life where Heavenly Father's love and miracles shine the brightest. We all will (if we haven't already) stand in a place, where we are vulnerable. It is how we weather those times that develop who we are tomorrow. He and His son are worthy recipients of our hope. Maybe that is one reason He's given us the hope of Christmas. It is a perennial reminder that God keeps His promises.

President Packer said in his recent conference address, Surviving in Enemy Territory: "Do not fear the future. Go forward with hope and faith. Remember that supernal gift of the Holy Ghost. Learn to be taught by it. Learn to seek it. Learn to live by it."

Sometimes God's gift of what we need may arrive wrapped in a package that we don't recognize. The hope of Christmas is the confident assurance that God is in control and knows what He's doing.

I love you Mom!
Till Tomorrow,
Holley

P.S. Below is a silly video that Dane and I made for you last night. Again please note that I would NOT do this for just anybody!