There are two attitudes in life: one of hope and the other of despair.
Once, a misprint of a weather forecast read like this: “There is a 5 percent chance of today and tomorrow.” In a Frank and Earnest cartoon, Frank slowly rolls out of bed, looks out the window, and sees the sun coming up. He says dryly, “Well, the sun is rising in the east . . . so far so good.”
W.C. Fields was one of the world’s greatest comedians, yet he lived much of his life in fear and dread. He once had a dream in which he saw himself stranded in a strange city without money or friends. The dream occupied his thoughts so much, it caused him to open bank accounts under assumed names in every city in which he performed, keeping no written record of the banks, the accounts, or the fictitious names. He once confided to a friend that he had more than 700 bank accounts spread around the world. Unfortunately, he died without ever telling anyone the locations of these accounts or the names under which they were held.
In 1970, during a very turbulent time in our nation’s history, a Doonesbury cartoon appeared in which Megaphone Mike is shown falling asleep. Above his head the frame is captioned, “It’s Christmas Eve as a tired, disappointed and disillusioned student activist drops off to sleep.” The next frames show him sleeping and then waking and popping up in bed, startled by an unexplained noise. In the last frame, Mike proclaims, “I thought I heard a reindeer.”
Christmas is like that. We may live in dark times, experience difficult circumstances, and have skeptical attitudes, but Christmas always gives us hope. It is the hope that God is alive, that He intervenes in our lives, and that peace and love are still possibilities. It is the hope that a Savior has been born. There is far more than a 5 percent chance of today and tomorrow because of a baby who was born more than 2,000 years ago in a little shepherd’s hamlet called Bethlehem. Because of His light, we have hope for something that is eternal and unquenchable.
In the days of Isaiah the prophet, the ruling line of kings descended from King David had been cut off. In Isaiah 11, he prophesied that a new sprout would grow from the stump of Jesse, David’s father. He foretold the rising of a new king who will bring peace, justice, and security to a savage, war-torn world — a place where “The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat; the calf and the young lion will feed together, and a little child will lead them” (Isaiah 11:6, CEB).
St. Paul wrote in Romans 15:1-12 that this hope for a new world marked by the peace and justice envisioned by Isaiah and many other prophets in the Old Testament is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. He added, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in faith so that you overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13, CEB).
The world is still a place of injustice, violence, oppression, and unrest, but peace and hope are born into our hearts through Jesus Christ, who fills all who confess Him as Lord and Savior with his divine Spirit. The Star of Bethlehem points us to a Savior who is changing the world, one life at a time.
John the Baptist proclaimed that the Kingdom of God was imminent upon the earth (Matthew 3:1-12). He preached hope for a strife-torn world through the soon-to-be revealed ministry of God’s Messiah. To prepare for His coming, John called upon all who heard his voice to repent of their violence, pride, oppression, and all their sins.
Repentance is still the calling of Jesus Christ upon our lives. As we prepare for Christmas, may we not just buy presents and put up decorations, but turn to the source of our hope in worship. May we give our lives in service to Jesus, the gift of God to us. There is more than a 5 percent chance of today and tomorrow.
In Jesus, there is a 100 percent chance of a hope-filled, abundant life today and a joyful tomorrow that stretches into eternity.
Dr. Dan Darby is a retired United Methodist pastor.
