Advent Devotional #3: Hope
“Do I love my neighbor as myself?”
by Rev. Ingrid McIntyre from Almost Christmas: Devotions of the Season
As a preacher’s kid, I moved a lot as a child. My family moved every five to six years, it seemed, when a new pastoral appointment sent us to a new church. I came to dread the yearly possibility of a move and held out hope that one day I would never have to move again. My hope was nurtured by family members who would welcome us at holidays and periodic visits, whose homes were sources of stability and constancy amid life’s changes.
As I consider Wesley’s question in light of this hope of my childhood, I see that my hope was incomplete because it only focused on me. I minister with people on the streets who experience homelessness and have come to recognize that not everyone has family or community to walk alongside them in life’s journey or to greet them with love upon arrival. When I realized that I was part of the whole family of Christ, I realized what an altogether hope would require. It would require me to love my neighbor as myself, to hope for their well-being as much as I hoped for my own.
Over two thousand years ago, hope showed up in a baby, the best symbol of hope there is! Hope was laid in a manger - literally a feeding trough - a sign that generations could feed on this hope to keep going. God showed up in the last place anybody would choose to give birth, showing us that no place on earth is beyond hope’s reach.
The people I meet on the streets mirror how God showed up then and keeps showing up now. We need to be open to those neighbors of ours who show what hope looks like in different places. Each of us carries a piece that is meant to be shared, and when we love our neighbors as we love ourselves, we find that hope grows stronger together. This kind of hope travels. When one person gets it, a string of others catch it. At first it came to me through my nuclear family. Then it came through various other relationships along the way. Now it is the beloved community of all those I’ve come to know and love. And as it moved outward through the love of neighbor, it grew from an almost to an altogether hope - one that envisions the well-being of the whole world.
This Advent, we have an opportunity to experience an altogether hope. I believe such a hope occurs when we hold out hope not only for ourselves, but for our neighbors as well. Wesley’s question reminds us that loving our neighbor is at the foundation of the Christian life. May we commit ourselves to loving others and experiencing hope that is grounded in that love.
Reflection Questions:
Dream big. What “irrational, impossible” hopes do you have for your life in the coming year?
How could that hope be expanded to focus on others in your community?
How could you share/spread hope?