Christmas is a season of ultimate hope. When I say "ultimate hope" I mean a hope that transcends all others — a hope that goes beyond this life, beyond our circumstances and reaches to eternity. This kind of hope is the only true hope there is. All others are but a shadow of the substance; they are temporary at best and outright lies at worst. The world is a dragnet of false hope designed to snare the lost with comfort and complacency, all the while pulling them down into ultimate hopelessness — an eternity separated from God.
True hope is a Person — it is not a vaccine, a political party, or a new year. True hope is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and He came to deliver us from our sins once and for all, not to offer temporary solutions and quick fixes to all the problems of this life. At a time in our nation's history when hopelessness seems to abound, when the darkness of isolation, fear, alcohol addiction and drug use are spreading like gangrene, and when the depressed see no other way out but suicide, may we be the light that draws them to true hope. May we show them where our hope lies and where they, too, may rest secure.
This Christmas, let us declare with the psalmist: "Jesus only is my rock and my salvation! I shall not be shaken, not by disease nor calamity nor violence nor death." May our actions show that we trust and hope in Him at all times, even the worst of times. May we stand firm, steadfast in our commission to preach the gospel and bring the lost back to the fold. And may we, the church, rise up in the midst of worldwide catastrophe bearing the banner of the blessed babe in the manger, the suffering Savior, the conquering King, the one and only Hope for mankind: Jesus Christ!