hope from Isaiah

The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
9.2

The Spirit of Lord God is upon me
because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the afflicted
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to whose who are bound
61.1

He will swallow up death forever
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces….
It will be said on that day
“Behond, this is out God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
This is the Lord; we have waited for him;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
25.8-9

For behold, I create new heavens
and a new earth,
and the former things shall not be remembered
or come into mind…
No more shall there be in it
and infant who lives but a few days,
or and old man who does not fill out his days…
65.17, 20

hope: expect the unexpected

Jesus’ coming, in Matthew and Luke, are accompanied by much history and prophecy. They say, All this stuff back here talking about our coming Messiah? Look! This baby fulfilled it! Our hope, our expectation, is here, is now. Even the Magi, Gentiles from the East, are in on things.

I was also seeing things through Mary’s eyes, how terrifying and strange and confusing it all must have been. How Elizabeth’s greeting in Luke 1 was so needed to confirm hope and dispel doubt. And how nine months is such a long, long time. Especially when you’ve been told you are carrying the Messiah. And that’s it. No more information on how this is all going to look. (I sure hope Mary was a flexible, spontaneous P!)

And then today I was so struck with how Jesus fulfilled prophecy but defied personal expectations. How impossible that the Messiah was born to an unmarried woman. How confusing, especially to Mary, that he was born in a dark, cold stable…not a place of luxury, or even a home, or even a room in the inn. His birth involved the most ordinary of people, and no one you might expect, religious and political leaders, wealthy devout citizens, prophets. The Messiah even had to hide in Egypt for a couple years.

I need that reminder sometimes, that Jesus always does what He says He’ll do, but that He might accomplish it in ways I might even find repulsive, or ill-fitting for One so great and good. But things are not always what they seem, and God’s Kingdom turns our rules and our selfish expectations on their heads. And in those times, like Mary, I need to “treasure up these things and ponder them in my heart” — hold on only to what I know and release how things appear. Then wait and trust: hope.

picture of hope

A thousand words can be used to describe precisely what hope means. But today, I submit a picture instead. What I did this warm, sunny winter day is my truest definition thus far.

hope: the imperfect points to the perfect

List of things that aren’t right, aren’t how they should be:

Iraq
how I relate to people
people who die of thirst
the millions in Bangladesh who are homeless because of Cyclone Sidr
my marinara sauce
our bodies that fail us in various ways
most of the world’s logos and designs
sex trafficking
people who don’t have enough to eat
corrupt political leaders
spam (both kinds)
mayonnaise (while we’re on the “wrong foods” topic)
Sudan/northern Uganda
my actions as wife and mother
people that abuse and take advantage of the helpless

And that’s the short list.

We people spend a lot of time trying to make things better. Cleaning up messes, perfecting recipes, designing logos or websites or print material, working for peace in the Middle East, caring for or helping the sick, helping people make better choices so their lives don’t get screwed up/get less screwed up…how much of what we do everyday is an effort, grand or not, to fix problems; to make the world, our world, a little bit better?

And if that isn’t depressing enough to think about, consider that it will never be fixed. Quell the violence in Iraq and it will just pop up someplace else. Feed all of Africa’s hungry and it will show up in South East Asia. Find the perfect marinara sauce recipe and then move on to the 2800 other recipes that need help.

I find hope in the immensity of it all.

I find hope because its like we all know better. We all know this is not how its supposed to be. We know that it, that we, were made for something different, something better, something perfect. Its a clear message of “hello, does anybody see a pattern?”

Its like we’re all aliens that look like humans and act like humans and we almost begin to think that we ARE humans, except that once in a while we catch a glimpse of that alien abnormality we all have that reminds us of what we really are. And that the mothership will be coming back for us in 03587 hours.

That comes as a great relief to me. Its good to look at the world’s imperfect things and think, Yep…someday that won’t be a problem. The older I get, and I am just SO old at 27 years of age, I the more I find myself waiting…longing…eagerly anticipating…expecting…

…hoping.