Morning has broken

 

Psalm 25:5.  NIV

Guide me in your truth and teach me, 

for you are God my Savior, 

and my hope is in you all day long.

The First Sunday of Advent is also known as Hope Sunday.  It seems to me that it isn’t enough to focus on Hope for just one day. I think this first week of Advent should be Hope Week. Especially now, when the pandemic is so much worse than it was in March because look - there are three different pharmaceutical companies who have found vaccines that have tested well for effectiveness in preventing the virus.   Experts tell us that the virus will most likely get much worse before a vaccine is available to most people, but there are vaccines. There is hope ahead.

We have heard it said, “It is always darkest before the dawn.”  This is not entirely true, being more metaphorical than factual and works as a metaphor just as well as, “The lost item is always in the last place you look,” works.   Just as you stop looking when you find the lost thing, so you stop worrying about the dark when you see the first hints of light in the east.  The “darkest before dawn” metaphor is typically used when trying to console someone who is going through serious difficulty.   It is just about as effective as a method of helping them feel better as does “this too shall pass.”. That is to say, no one really wants to hear it.  

It is difficult to hear anyone speak hopeful words for the future when we are fully absorbed in the troubles of right now.  It is not until we are able to look ahead from this moment that we start to realize there may, indeed, be hope for something better.  In our case, we can look ahead to the day when a vaccine will be available to all persons. 

We know the dawn is coming.  We know the night will not last forever.  No matter how difficult the journey into the future may be, when we have faith that God is with us we know that everything will be ok.  That is not to say that suddenly life will be all sunshine and (thornless) roses, but that God’s presence in our lives enables us to face whatever is ahead with confidence. 

One of my favorite things about getting up early in the morning is sitting in my kitchen watching the first fingers of light reaching into the night sky above my neighbor’s house.   Whenever I watch the day breaking I am filled with hope for the new day.  To me, those wisps of light in the darkness are what hope looks like.  

God of hope, it is hard for us to look past the troubles of now into a brighter future.  May we have faith to look ahead to the dawn of a new day, when the light of your love breaks through into the night.  Amen