Perhaps it is the season, this oh so special time of year, but I’ve been thinking about hope these past few days. What is hope? What should we hope in? This Christmas thousands of people will put their hope in a little box under the tree and they will find that their expectations leave them short.
I used to not understand hope. Until recently I didn’t look to the future with a hopeful and expectant gaze. Instead I looked at things rather pessimistically or overly pragmatic. It was as if the future was a math equation that was bound to eventually fall apart when I didn’t do the right thing. Life changes us, we grow, we learn and it feels like I have learned how to hope again. It’s weird isn’t it? Learning to hope again? It is supposed to be one of the main tenants of Christmas isn’t it? Along with love and joy, aren’t we supped to be hopeful this time of year? Yet for many of us this season is a bleak time of year, as colorless and bland as a fresh snowfall.
For many people Christmas is about one thing, and it’s not a baby born in a manger. It’s about presents, toys, gadgets, stuff and things. How much did it cost and how much of it can we get! We tend to view Christmas as one of the most commercialized holidays of the year and with good reason. Most of our stores do the majority of their business this time of the year. The parking lots are full, the lines are long and tempers short. Yet many of us will do anything to find that one perfect present. I used to be this way, I would search high and low for gifts that really meant something. Gifts that would really let others know how much I appreciated them. I was putting my hopes in a little box under a tree and waiting expectantly for that one moment when it would be opened and the world would become a better place.
You know what I realized? It didn’t matter. None of it. You see my friends and family weren’t sitting around thinking that if I got them something great this year then they would continue to be my friend for another year. My value as a family member, or as a friend, was not based on my ability to pick out that perfect gift. It was based on the other 364 days of the year. It was based on the fact that I cared for them as much as they cared for me.
The consumerism of this time of the year is a distraction. A hollow and empty one at that. You will not find hope in a box. It is not sold in the store. It is not something passed out to the first five hundred people through the door. It is something that has to be found. It is something unique and different for all of us. There is wonder all around us, yet we spend our time intently hunting for a thing, something that will break, or that will be obsolete in six months once Apple makes a new one. Is this what you have placed your hope in this year? A temporal and temporary thing? I can’t answer that for you.
Many of you know of my faith in Jesus Christ, whose birth is typically celebrated this time of the year. In my faith I find acceptance and hope that is eternal, unending and freely offered to any who seek it out. That is what I have hope in. For you maybe it’s not a religion, but family, a circle of close friends or maybe it is something else entirely. This year I encourage you to seek out that hope, whether its a cross, a mantra or something else. Quit focusing on the things that don’t really matter. Look up from that bleak snowfall and you will see glorious, blue skies. Look closely at the powder on the ground and see the beauty of an individual snowflake. Find the things that are important in your life and pursue those things. Things that are good. Things that have value. Tings that can’t be wrapped up with pretty little bows.
Luv, Korah