Hope

This is a picture of our son Nicholas on the left. Next to him is Pete McClain, his roomatte at East Tennessee State.

Nicholas will be home with us this Saturday for the holidays. He'll be with us for a month, so the fatted calf gets slaughtered on Saturday - our boy has returned! The big event in the Zockoll household occurs on Saturday - we go out and buy the Christmas tree!

Nothing in the world - no fame, fortune, corporate climbing, talent, sports championship - could ever match the power and joy of a close-knit family. Nothing.

And so now we see the holiday in a much closer view. One of my favorite passages is Luke 2:25-36 where it says
"a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon and this man was righteous and devout, looking for for the "Consolation of Israel " and the Holy Spirit was upon him and it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ (Messiah) and he came in the Spirit into the temple and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to carry out for Him the custom of the Law then he took Him into his arms and blessed God and said:

"Now Lord, You are releasing Thy bondservant to depart in peace, according to Thy word for my eyes have seen Thy salvation which Thou have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a LIGHT OF REVELATION TO THE GENTILES and the glory of Thy people Israel"

What a great passage!

Look at the name CONSOLATION OF ISRAEL. Jesus is the fulfillment of the hope that Someone would come and finally bring an answer to the grief that plagued the people. HOPE. His name was HOPE, and His reach would extend beyond the Jews to include the gentiles. That's me.

HOPE.

As a poverty-stricken student trying to make it through college (many of my friends and roomates never realized that I was called in to the business office and told that I was the finanacially neediest student on campus in a university of almost 7000 students) I was constantly in hope for financial deliverance from the worry of being asked to leave because of my school bill. It wasn't like I wasn't trying; because I attended a nonpublic Christian university, I was not eligible for grants, so I held down three jobs: night cleanup, weekend yard maintenance for an elderly couple, and haircutting in the dorms. I took jobs wherever I could find them, but deep down I wished I would one day be delivered and given a reprieve from the money stress.

The day came in my Junior year when the school said I would need to leave because of my school bill, and I was crushed. I called to the Lord, hoping that there would be a miracle...

...and one came. A farmer in Virginia had set up a financial memorial for needy students - in honor of his late daughter- , and I was one of four receipients of a private gift - enough to see me through graduation. I thanked the benefactor and I thanked the Lord my Hope.

And I still see Him as my Hope.

The story is told that the well-known atheist Jean-Paul Sartre stated just before his death that he has such monstrous feelings of despair that he would tried to convince himself by saying...

“I know I shall die in hope.”

Then in profound sadness, he would add...

“But hope needs a foundation.”

Here is my hope: Jesus. I KNOW my Redeemer lives and I am going to Heaven when I die. This life is not the end of it all.

Jeremiah 29:11 Jehovah states: "I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope."

My salvatio is secure because "The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." (Romans 11:29).

This is my joy this Christmas season.

I mean it.