Hope [Jeremiah 33:14-18]

   I hope you all had a good holiday last week and made it to your destinations safely.  Thanksgiving is the signal in our culture that Christmas is coming.  It seems like every year that Christmas stuff, meaning the Christmas trees and Christmas deals, appear earlier and earlier, in the month of November.  Now that we have entered December, Christmas fever or frenzy is whipping up.  For many of us as we look at the weeks ahead, we can't shake the thought of physical exhaustion which intern saps our spirit.  Christmas is not something to look forward to but instead is something we simply must endure along with all the presents, meals, Christmas Concerts, holiday parties and the list goes on and on.  However, it is a lot easier to get caught up in all this colors, chaos. and brillant lights because when we look at what Christmas really brings us it is actually asks us to think about the way we live our busy lives.
     I think many of us know that Christmas is about Jesus being born into the world.  What we often overlook is why.  Time and time again the people of Israel have faced some overwhelming stuff.  In Jeremiah 33, many of the best and brightest from Israel have been taken into slavery after Bablyon had captured Israel.  They didn't know if they would ever go home again.  Even more so, the people of Israel didn't know if Israel, their country, would ever exist at all again or would it just join the names of the many countries that are wiped off the face of the Earth.  Into this dark future, the prophet Jeremiah told the people, that God promises them that this in the not the end.  He goes on to say that they will all eventually go back home to Israel and that God is going to put a descendent of King David, the king everybody loved, on the throne.  God is signaling to them and to us today, that God honors God promise.  This promise helped the people of Israel live into hope.    Just think about your situation, how does it feel to be hopefully or hopeless about things?  It really changes how you live your life daily dones't it?
      Knowing that Jesus is again coming this Christmas season, knowing that hope is coming.  What is going to be different about this year than all the other Christmases that have come before?How are you going to live your life differently, knowing that God honors God promises and is brinign hope to all the world?