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] Date Posted:11:11:51 12/14/07 Fri
The Burden of Hope
From Jars of Clay
“Christmas Reflections”
“But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” Luke 2:19
Christmas comes each year with its dangerous invitation to hope. Yet for most of us, this invitation feels more like an inconvenience and a burden. We see this burden from the very beginning, as Mary herself pondered the meaning of all of these things, I wonder how many of her personal hopes and dreams were on the altar at this moment. Surely this was not the life that she had dreamed for herself, and who could possibly understand the road that she was about to walk? Who would go with her? As she began to consider all that she would lose along this journey the invitation to hope must have felt callous and far-fetched.
If you are like me this is where most of my adult Christmas’ have been spent, burdened and heavy under the Hope that promises much but asks for everything along the way. Maybe this is your story this year, maybe your losses have been deep and painful. Maybe you stand in the reality of every Christmas from now on being a bitter reminder of those that are no longer with you, and things that have been lost along the way. If this is you take courage from Mary who somehow found a way to move from deep pondering and introspection to singing. Somewhere along the road the question of her life ceases to become “If you knew me and loved me God how could you ask this of me” to “God who do you see when you look at me?” Somewhere along the way her hope was unfettered to all those good things that she had hoped her life would be and became anchored to God’s hopes for her.
“for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed,” – Luke 2:48
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