Advent thoughts - HOPE

This first week of the Good Morning Girls Advent study is full of HOPE. Stories of people looking to the future, living in hope and expectation, living by faith.

Yet Mary SEES: Luke 1:26 – 38 is the story of how Mary conceives.
“And Mary said,
Yes, I see it all now: I’m the Lord’s maid, ready to serve.
Let it be with me just as you say.”

And Mary SAID. She SAID. She ACCEPTED, AGREED, WHISPERED, BELIEVED, UNDERSTOOD.
Would I?

The Word is LIGHT; LIGHT TO LIVE BY: John 1-1-4
“The Word was first, the Word present to God, God present to the Word.
The Word was God, in readiness for God from day one.
Everything was created through him; nothing—not one thing!— came into being without him.
What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn’t put it out.”

Yet some were BLINDED: John 1:9 – 12 "but his own did not receive him" caught my eye - having conversations with people who just don't 'get' Jesus. They are HIS but do not RECEIVE him - The Message "He came to his own people, but they didn’t want him". Praying that this Advent will be different!

Amazing to think that Jesus can be our ETERNAL LIGHT. I woke up at 1am a couple of nights ago and was astonished to see the garden looking so clear in the moonlight - such a contrast to the pitchblack darkness we often see. Imagine being able to see clearly all the time, with no darkness at all: a faint image of what it is like with Jesus, both now in our lives and then when he returns. Praying we will see things that happen clearly in HIS light, not stumbling around in the darkness by ourselves.
Isaiah 60:18-20 says: “God will be your eternal light, your God will bathe you in splendour. Your sun will never go down, your moon will never fade. I will be your eternal light. Your days of grieving are over.”

Jeremiah HOPES (33:14 - 15 “The time is coming...” true for the here and now, the before and then, the soon and later... for the God Who Is, The God Who Was, and The God About to Arrive...

Romans 15: 12-13 in the Message ' And Isaiah's word*: there's the root of our ancestor Jesse, breaking through the earth and growing tree tall, tall enough for everyone everywhere to see and take hope! Oh! May the God of green hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with HOPE!' (*Isaiah 11:10)

The readings for the four weeks are here. The study guide that goes with it finishes the first week with:
Hope came into our world!
Hope...
that God can still use this broken life and make something beautiful.
Hope…
that we don't have to be perfect to be loved by Him.
Hope...
that the best is yet to come.