It's All About the Hope!

Christmas is in the air. Can you feel it?





It’s because of hope. Hope personified in a baby in a manger. It puts a smile on your face, doesn’t it? No matter what you are going through. No matter what your bank account says. No matter what your doctor says. You may have lost loved ones. Or maybe your loved ones are far away this Christmas.



Hope is still present…can you feel it?



This Christmas as I look around, I don’t see much in terms of tangible belongings. I don’t see much in my bank account. My health has been precarious as of late and pain has been a daily occurrence. My daughter is in college 1000 miles away and won’t be with us. I miss my grandmother, and the mother she was to me.



Yet hope is here, have you caught it yet?





There won’t be as many baked goods or presents under the tree. It will be a celebration of three instead of four. I see a round of Twelve Days of Christmas happening on Skype. Laughter is still laughter even a thousand miles away.



Because Hope transverses time and distance…do you recognize it?





When the last cookie is baked and the last candy made, when the tree is decorated and lights up the room, when the last present is wrapped and laid beneath the star, there is Hope. When stillness embraces your heart and the busyness is put aside in favor of peace, Hope is present.



Because God became flesh and was born as a babe, hope lived and dwelt among us. His presence still permeates our being and indwells within us, giving us Hope. He is the Hope of all mankind. He is the Hope that brings peace and eternal salvation.



He is Hope…do you know Him?



Thanks for taking the time to grow with me this Wednesday!

Darlene Shortridge

Author of Until Forever and Forever Blessed















www.BooksByAmanda.com