Christmas hope fulfilled

Originally appeared on spirituality.com

Centuries ago, during what was the first Christmas, many hoped eagerly for a savior, a Messiah, who would lead them out of oppression. This hope was sometimes centered on the expectation of a warrior king who would overthrow the political leadership under which oppressed peoples labored. But this wasn’t exactly how comfort and rescue came.

Alone and apparently forgotten, these people were not unlike those in our world today who have lost homes to disasters, employment to a struggling economy, their place and identity to civil strife, or health to illness—or merely the simple pleasure of supportive family and friends.

Humanity’s prayer of affirmation through the ages might be best characterized in the sentiments of the Psalmist when he wrote, “For in thee, O Lord, do I hope; thou wilt hear, O Lord my God.”

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