A Story of Hope
Scripture Reading — Luke 2:1-7
She gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger.
I recently heard Lance Armstrong, cancer survivor and seven-time Tour de France winner, say in a television interview that often when people are fighting cancer, they like to hear stories of others who have beaten cancer. Why? Because stories of good news and survival offer hope. Such stories communicate that life can go on.
Perhaps one of the reasons that the Christmas story is so loved is that, in a similar way, it communicates to us that there is hope for an ailing human race.
We live in a world of child molestation, spousal abuse, and Internet porn. We live in a world of broken families and shattered homes. We live in a world of identity fraud and corporate scandal, a world of suicide bombers and terrorist threats. We live in a world filled with the cancer of sin and the death and despair it brings. It is to this world that the good-news story of Christmas is told.
In the Christmas story God's own Son enters this world as one of us; a baby born and wrapped in cloths and placed in a manger. But this is no ordinary child; he's the Savior of the world. Through him comes the cure for all that is amiss in our lives and all that is wrong in this world. One of the reasons we love the Christmas story so much is that it offers hope.
Father, in this broken world where sin and evil are so strong, thank you for your message of hope. Thank you for sending your Son so that we might live. In Jesus, Amen.
About the author — Joel Sheeres
Rev. Joel Sheeres is the pastor at First Christian Reformed Church in Crown Point, Indiana. He and his wife, Christine, have three children. Pastor Sheeres has previously served at Faith Christian Reformed Church in Elmhurst, Illinois.
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