Hope is alive

Every year I start preparing for Christmas in the summer when things aren't quite so hectic. Yes, this means when you are setting off fireworks that I am listening to "Joy to the World." I sometimes joke that I'm a Scrooge before Thanksgiving because of this, but that could never be true. I love Christmas and these songs too much to ever truly be bothered by the prep work it takes to get ready. I just love Christmas!

Year after year, worship artists write new Christmas songs and rearrange classics, some of which we use during Advent. One of these sweet songs isn't actually a new release, but one I had never heard until this year. It's called "Hope is Alive" and was written by Ellie Holcomb back in 2014. If you are not familiar with Holcomb, look her up. She has such a beautifully unique voice, and she even has written two of the sweetest children's books we have on our shelf at home. 

The whole song centers around how Jesus, the Savior of the world, came and lived among us. The hope our world had always longed for had finally come. This hope entered the world as a baby, so sweet and so small. It's the same hope we need to survive in this world. It's also the same hope we need to be sharing. 

We can sometimes think it takes some grand gesture to share hope effectively or that it has to be planned out, marked down as a calendar event. Hope can be shared with our world in small, sweet ways just like how Jesus came into the world. 

When this song says, "hope is alive," it's saying that hope is present. The hope we have doesn't stop at the crucifixion, which we know wasn't the end, but it certainly took hope to another level with Christ's glorious resurrection. Jesus came into the world to be the light and have those who believed in him shine that same light of hope. This hope is not a sign we wear around our neck or something we have to paint on our homes. It is a hope that lives inside us because we are God's children, fearfully and so wonderfully made. It's a light we have to choose not to hide but let the world see because the world needs the hope that Jesus provides. It's a hope that can't be wrapped up and put under a tree. It's not something anyone can have Amazon deliver with 2-day shipping. It's a one-of-a-kind hope that is indescribable but also something we cannot fully live without. 

In the last two months of every year, Christians (me included) tend to share this hope better than any other time of year. I've always wondered what the world would be like if we shared the hope of Christ with the world the other ten months of the year at the same level we do around the holidays. 

What would this world look like if our conversations were about sharing this hope? How much more beneficial would social media feeds be if they were full of messages of hope rather than our opinions? What kind of difference could we make if the first thing on our to-do list each day was to share the light of hope with the world?

Remember that during this season and into the new year, that hope is alive, and it lives inside you and me. This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine!

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. - Romans 5:13

Merry Christmas!

April Bergez

Worship Leader

“Hope is Alive” by Ellie Holcomb

https://youtu.be/P5BurBOyPx8