"Under-The-Desk" Hope
Luke 2:10 “Then the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.’”
Looking through old yearbooks and reminiscing about the "good old days” left my sister and me with side-splitting laughter. And when I say, "good old days," I’m referring to the days of teeth and glasses way too big for our faces, goofy smiles, embarrassing fashion statements, and hair pulled so tightly into pony tails that our yearbook pictures eternally froze us looking totally bald!
One laughable memory was of our elementary school nuclear bomb drills. Now, you may be unfamiliar with the 1960’s school nuclear bomb procedure, so here it is:
1st - Immediately take shelter under your desk. And, I don't mean a big, heavy metal desk. I mean a small, child-sized wooden desk.
2nd - Stay under the desk until all danger has passed.
3rd - If the nuclear attack were to come while you were at home, no worries! In that case, you would make the short trip to the bomb shelter at school where you were sure to be safe, obviously due to the abundance of desks!
Looking back now at this drill through adult eyes, we began to cackle at its fallacies. "How could we believe that hiding under a small desk would protect us from a nuclear bomb?" and "Just how long were we suppose to remain under our desks for the danger of the nuclear fallout to pass? Three weeks? Three years?" Gratefully, the threat never became reality or we would have been forced to live our lives in fear under our desk! So, it seems that our childhood security was filled with false hope.
But as adults, we’ve finally matured and no longer invest in false hope. Or do we? What about putting our hopes and dreams in our wealth, our friends, our children, and in ourselves and our accomplishments? Can these hopes let us down? You bet they can! Our money can disappear, our friends can desert us and mislead us, our children can disappoint us, and sadly, we can disappoint ourselves. And, if these hopes can let us down, are they true hope?
The Good News is, there is TRUE HOPE out there. Incredibly, this TRUE HOPE came to the world while most of the world was asleep. Nonetheless, it was indeed spectacular, with angels, and spotlights, and a ginormous chorus of heavenly beings with a loud announcer! "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people!" (Now I'm aware that in Luke, there is no exclamation mark after the word "people," but I just can't help it. I imagine it was said with an exclamation mark!) I call this verse, "My Happy Hope Verse," and its applications reach far beyond Christmas season.
So, when you can, take just a moment and read Luke 2 followed by 1 Peter 1: 3 – 5 (NIV). Because Christ willingly came to this earth as a human baby, we are offered a living hope that will never perish, spoil, or fade. Our hope is shielded (totally protected) by God's power until his amazing time of salvation! It is safe to come out from under my desk of false hope. I can stand firmly and boldly in the hope of eternal life with Jesus Christ my Savior, a hope that never fails! (Just, WOW! More exclamation marks needed!)
Blessings for this Christmas Season of Hope,
Rita