I woke up early today (4am) still struggling to get over jet lag from our trip back to the states. After trying unsuccessfully to fall back to sleep I got up and did some blog hoping. I specifically was reading blogs that were talking about Advent, as this has been something I have been trying to learn more about and incorporate more into my life, and there were two paragraphs in the reading that stood out to me and I thought I would share here:

“I could celebrate because Christmas means hope. Hope is not a promise that prayers will all be answered with yes. It isn’t knowing that tomorrow will be better than today. Hope isn’t even the assurance that we won’t want with all our hearts to give up sometimes because life’s too hard. Jesus was born into this world—a world that can be a horrible, frightening, and sorrowful place—so we would know that God isn’t going to let us go. No matter what. We hope, because God loves us enough to go through it with us. That is reason to celebrate.” Cindy Bryan

“On this first Sunday of Advent we are called to remember that hope. To celebrate the incarnation that brought hope to those who had never dared hope before. But celebrating doesn’t mean just saying a few nice words or a prayer of thanksgiving. It means being that hope. It means as followers of Christ expressing his incarnation by being his hands and feet. By healing the sick, by setting the oppressed free, and bringing good news to the poor. Hope must be tangible and make a concrete difference in the lives of those who need it for it to be real hope. Let us not just proclaim hope, but be true harbingers of hope as we seek to live in light of the incarnation.” - Julie Clawson

Hope be with you.

Rejoicing in the journey -
Beth Stedman