Most every post I’ve read during this Christmas season has observed how “crazy” the year has been. How disastrous was the 2020 election. How divided we are as a people. Science vs. faith. Justice vs. mercy. Where is the hope this Christmas?
It’s not difficult. When you try to live as if there is no God, and you labor and sweat and think and proclaim that we can do “this” without God, then 2020 is what you get. Why would anyone think they can get “hope” any other way?
But this is not so for the very youngest of our species. They still are largely blissfully unaware of all that we are laboring over. They probably wish we were in better moods. But what is it about the contentment of a child—the contentment we used to have—that reframes our current world? What do they know of God? What do they know of religion? And yet, we are told in the Bible that God prefers the little children to . . . well, me and you.
In this season of hope, we need to reclaim the childlike wonder of creation and pursue contentment with our circumstances, world, and God. What does that look like? In his book, Contentment: The Secret to a Lasting Calm, Dr. Richard Swenson puts it this way:
Contentment in the young does not require Disneyland. Just a book on beetles. Or a puppet drinking green milk. Just hearts with the capacity for delight, brains with the capacity for imagination, and spirits with the innocence of sufficiency.
Perhaps the statute of limitations for creation wonder has not yet expired for them. Maybe in some mystical way they retain the slightest inkling of what it was like when light and energy and glory and love burst upon a microscopic spot, and suddenly they were, when before they were not.
What drove this childlike wonder from you? Perhaps the hope that we have is found in the realization that we cannot do “this” on our own. Perhaps we need to understand from where we’ve come, why we are here, who draws the lines of our conduct, and where we are going after all of this is over. The answers to all four of those constructs are found in only one place in the universe—the Bible. Buddhism doesn’t. Islam doesn’t. Hinduism fails. Marxism, fascism, socialism and liberalism don’t want you to be content.
No, we need new hearts with the capacity for delight. We need renewed minds with the capacity for imagination. We need lifted spirits with the innocence of sufficiency. Let us become as little children again and restart the statute of limitations for a childlike creation wonder. To rediscover what it is like to be born again is the hope that we are reminded of every Christmas . . . even in 2020. May you find all of these things and, with childlike discovery, know the hope of glory. His name is Jesus. Perhaps all of this is why God the Father had God the Son come to us as a little child.
In 2021, we’ll be looking at hope and for hope, defining hope, and telling others about the hope that we have. I believe that “hope” will be the great common denominator that will ultimately bring all of us together. I believe that our common desire for hope will lead to a new awakening and unity between us.
In the interim, if you don’t know Jesus, start looking for the hope. He’ll be a baby in a manger. What? You were looking for something else?
A hope-filled Christmas to all.
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