There is hope for the hopeless. Read Jeremiah 29:11-13. While the first week of the Advent season centers around hope, we are mindful that the Christmas season enhances the hopelessness that some people feel. This does not mean they are scrooges who hate Christmas. It usually means that the ache in their heart is stronger as they compare their heartache to hopeful celebrations that surround them. Perhaps it is because this Christmas, they will be missing a parent, spouse, or child. Perhaps they are in a divorced situation, and they are the ones without the children on Christmas Day. Perhaps they have tried to have children, and since Christmas season is all about a baby born in a manger, they grieve over a childless crib. The feeling of hopelessness in a season of hope is difficult. God speaks into the hopelessness of the exiles in Babylon. The Babylonians destroyed the city of Jerusalem and killed thousands of men, women, and children. They marched thousands more out of Israel to a river and Babylon, and were forced to serve the king of Babylon. The prophet Jeremiah wrote, “’ I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a HOPE and a future.’” What the people longed for was for the past to be restored. But the past could not be restored. Hope is not in restoring the past. Hope is in something new that God will do in the future. Six hundred years before Jesus was born, God turned the hearts of the Israelis from the hurt of the past to the hope of the future.

Holy God, in the midst of hopelessness, restore hope. As we grieve the losses of our past, strengthen our hearts so that we may hope for the future. Amen.