the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 1Timothy 1:5

The season of Advent is in full swing as we head towards Christmas day later this week. Like every year, we enter Advent with hope. The four themes of the Advent Calendar are Hope, Peace, Joy and Love, so as we begin the week of Love today, we begin by reflecting on John 3:16, likely the most popular verse in Christendom across history. The message of John 3:16 encapsulates all the themes of Advent.

The term Advent means arrival or appearance, so within our understanding of Advent, we can immediately see that we are in a period of waiting for an arrival, and perhaps we have not considered the hope of waiting, but all waiting is fueled by hope! We also know that the hope in our waiting is bound together by our faith, as faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things unseen (Hebrews 11:1). Hope is an essential part of life for all people and we are all waiting for many things, whether the child trying to stay awake in waiting for the appearance of Santa on Christmas Eve, a young adult anxiously awaiting acceptance to their dream college, or perhaps waiting for just the right moment to pull that special bottle of wine from the cellar to enjoy! Then we have the more serious waiting in life, the waiting for test results from your doctor, or worse, from your spouses doctor, or waiting while God prepares your future wife and probably preparing us as well, or the anxious waiting of a child being born. Waiting comes in many flavors, and central to our lives which is why Hope is so important!

Then there is peace, can we have peace in the waiting? Depending on the flavor of our waiting, some will feel like time is standing still, while others will make themselves busy so as not to dwell on the waiting, the goal of both is to not be anxious. As creatures bound by time, waiting is often magnified, especially in 21st century America where our lives are characterized by terms like “on-demand”, “instant ______”, microwaves, and drive-thru everythings! We are not accustom to waiting. Earlier today, I was driving home from church, waiting at a red light behind another car. The light changed and the car in front of me did not go, but I made a conscious decision to not use my horn. So, instead of honking, I waited one second, and the car went. Seems silly, but I know there are some reading this who can relate. In scripture, Jesus talked about peace. He told us that He gives us His peace so that our hearts are not troubled (John 14:27), but He also tells us that the world also provides a version of peace (John 14:27) that is not of God. So, rather than seeking the circumstantial peace of the world, we must always opt for the peace of God; this peace through prayer with a thankful heart, and then we will experience the Peace of God that is beyond understanding (Philippians 4:6-7). This is an incredible gift of God demonstrating His great love for us. We receive this peace often, but it is really magnified in the midst of fear and anxiety.

For the Christian, waiting is also a fundamental part of our faith because we are waiting for the return of our Lord Jesus. In John 14:3, Jesus said that He would go and prepare a place for us, then come back to receive us, further adding that He would not abandon us as orphans (John 14:18). So, as Israel was awaiting the Messiah at the time of the first Advent, we await the Second Advent which is the appearing of our “blessed hope Who is our God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ (Titus 2:13). As Christians, we have a living hope that we received by the power of the Resurrection, when we were born-again (1Peter 1:3). When we speak of hope, we are not only speaking of an expectation, but we are speaking of a confident expectation. Very simply, this means that because Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, and because we have written record of the faithfulness of God as a source of hope (Romans 15:4), we can have confidence. So during this season of Advent, as we move towards Christmas, we can take time to reflect on our hope, a hope that finds its strength by our faith which has been established and rooted by the love of God.

For God so loved the world that He gave (Love) His only begotten Son (Truth) so that whoever (Hope) believes (Faith) in Him (Hope) shall not perish (Peace), but have (Peace) eternal life (Joy).