I Wait in Hope

There are no Five Minute Friday link ups this month, which means no word prompt. In lieu of that, the first four Fridays of December we'll explore Advent, since that provides a ready-made word to focus on each week. (I am apparently unable to write on Fridays if I'm not given a word.)

While doing a little Advent research (I couldn't remember the word associated with each candle in an Advent wreath for each week of Advent :) ), I saw Advent explained as a time of preparation for celebrating the birth or coming of Jesus.

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This seemed a little short sighted since the reason for Jesus' birth was so that He could die for us. That's what I'll be looking at; how each of these words focuses not just on Jesus the baby, but Jesus the Messiah.

The first candle of Advent is the hope candle. I also saw this explained as the candle of expectation. We wait in expectation for the celebration of  Jesus' birth, but in a larger sense we wait in hope and in the expectation for Jesus to return again.

He tells us in His word that He will come again, so the hope we feel is a hope steeped in assurance; a certain knowledge that our eternal life with Him, promised by His death and our salvation because of that death, is a hope that will be fulfilled.

So light the first candle in your Advent wreath and celebrate the hope of Christ's return.