Advent Devotion No. 10: Blaine Sanders
Advent is about waiting…in hope. As children, it was hard to wait on Christmas, but we had hope, the hope that Santa Claus was going to come. He had come before; he would come again. And that hope brought an anticipation and excitement that culminated Christmas morning.
As adults, it’s a little different. We probably are more patient than we were as children, but are we as hopeful during Advent? To be sure, there are reasons to lose hope. Will we ever be able to get the coronavirus under control? Will we ever make real progress in race relations? Will our government leaders ever be able to work together? Will we ever be able to have civilized political discussions with each other? Sometimes, it seems hopeless.
What does the Bible say in response? “The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.” Lamentations 3:25-26 (NIV). So, we don’t need to put our hope in ourselves or other people; we place our hope in God. And how about the waiting? The waiting itself is “good.”
Every Sunday, we close worship by singing Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Ann and I were in Nashville recently visiting our son, Blaine. One day for lunch, he took us to The Cookery, a restaurant that hires people experiencing homelessness and trains them for careers in the food industry. Jeremiah 29:11 is displayed prominently. The Cookery is putting its hope in God and waiting for God to give hope and a future to people who may have had little reason to hope.
As they say, “With God’s help, we are ‘cooking up’ hope.” As we wait on Advent this year, with God’s help, let’s cook up hope.
