Isaiah
25:8: The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will
remove his peoples disgrace from all the earth.
Revelation
21:4: He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or
mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.
How can we possibly hope in times such as these when we
are surrounded by hatred and violence? We can look at the big picture. Written
centuries apart, these two passages offer the same promises: God’s presence
with His people and the end of pain and death. It’s difficult to hold on to
those promises in these terrible times, but we can. We can because of Jesus.
This Christmas, more than ever, we need to remember that He was sent into the
world to overcome evil, and He did. Therein lays our hope, not in what the
world is doing but in what God has done in Jesus Christ. We usually think of
Advent as a time of waiting, but maybe this year our waiting should be active.
Maybe this year we should make ourselves available to God, asking Him to use us
to act out His Love because Love is
stronger than death; and so, no matter what the circumstances around us, we
have reason to hope.
Rev.
Sue Currie, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Belle Vernon
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