Hope for What’s to Come
“You shall no more be termed Forsaken,
and your land shall no more be termed Desolate;
but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her,
and your land Married;
for the Lord delights in you,
and your land shall be married.”
Isaiah 62:4
By the time you read this, it will be December, my Christmas tree is (probably!) up, the fire in the chimney will be lit and I’ll have begun Christmas baking. Advent has well and truly started!
The passage from Isaiah is from the Church of England’s lectionary readings on the first Sunday in Advent. Although rarely read in church and allocated to the tertiary Sunday service, this is a part of Scripture I love.
We’ve ended the Church year thinking about death and destruction and reminding ourselves that the King, who is Christ, will come and redeem it. Now, we step into the new Church year, in these short, dark evenings, reminding ourselves of all the hope that is to come, of the new life and new beginnings, of birth, of faithfulness and, of peace and redemption that we see flickers of as we prepare to celebrate the birth of our Savior.
Yet for now, we might still feel forsaken, desolate or undelightful and unloved – but these words of Isaiah remind us that what feels true today may not be true tomorrow. There will be a time when the clouds that have marred the way we see ourselves will lift and, even though we can’t imagine it, this is not forever.
Periods of pain can feel all-consuming: grief, death, loss, hopelessness, the ‘could’ve’ and ‘should’ve,’ anxiety, and the black dog of depression. Illnesses all have the power to leave us in a place of desolation and those feelings are real, valid and need to be acknowledged. They must always be accompanied with hope: Hope that there are different days ahead, the belief that God’s imminent coming into the world can change things, and that He has the power to change even our most difficult circumstances.
“Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine: Glory to him from generation to generation in the Church, and in Christ Jesus forever and ever. Amen.”
Ephesians 3:20, 21
