Luke 2:1-5
Truth and Hope are Coming
1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register.
4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.
Romans 8:22-27
Truth and Hope are Coming
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
Hebrews 11:1
About Hope and Faith
1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
John 10:10
One Would Come to Give Us Life to the Fullest
10 I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
Matthew 13:44
The Kingdom of Heaven is a Joy
44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
Philippians 2:5-11
The Humbled and Exalted Christ
5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Approximately two thousand years ago no one had ever heard of Christmas Day or knew what it was...There was no one who had ever heard of Christmas Eve...The first Christmas Eve twas the night before our first Christmas...Imagine the night before our very first Christmas...There are literally the pains of childbirth with Mary...Through God's freewill a father had come to Bethlehem to register for a Roman census and he brought his fiance, a young girl named Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and she was expecting their first Child...But this Child is not just going to be any Child...This Child was One of Great Destiny, and also One of Great Hope...This Child would also bring us Truth to our world...He would be full of grace and truth when He was born...Before Him something was missing in our world...So all of mankind and the whole creation had been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to this time...Our world was longing for that Something that seemed to be missing in our world to come and dwell with us...
The world up to this time, and even today, seems to give us a certain level of happiness...And yet, it seems even when we are at the happiest point or points in our lives, we still feel that there is Something More...We can feel, even at our happiest times in our lives, that Something still is missing...Something is just not quite there...Life on earth seems at least a little empty (or so it seems to me)...Something (and I cannot put my finger on it) is missing on earth...The happiness, the truths we know, the faiths we have, and the hopes that we need, needed strengthening...There is this type of joy that is missing in life...A joy that comes not of this earth, but somewhere above...And this joy comes from Someone Above...And on our first Christmas this joy would be born...
So our hopes needed some strengthening...Hope is not something in the present and the current moment...Hope is Something that is more toward the future...Truth was coming...So Hope was coming...And people's faith would be strengthened through the coming of this Truth and Hope and His Grace...Without this faith and confidence in what we hope for and cannot see -man is a little lost, and a little empty...It is a feeling of not quite being right...It is like our reality is on the outside and looking in...We need Something to fill a void in life that helps our life to be lived in the full...Jesus satisfies what is missing on earth...So Hope was coming on this very first Christmas Eve, and this Hope would help us forget about any emptiness and promise us that life could be fuller and lived to the fullest...The thing that often is missing in our lives is this Truth and Hope...And those things would arrive soon in a manger, in the town of Bethlehem -and would be a fulfillment of prophecy in the Old Testament Scripture...And He was born and came into this world with such humility that He showed no favoritism to any of us during His life and ministry...
This Something More was coming...This Something more is the reason we have Christmas Eve and the reason we celebrate Christmas Day...In the town of David, the sign of Truth and Hope was about to arrive...This Hope would bring us the gospel, the good news of great joy and happiness -and this happiness would be for all people...The things that bring us to the brink of our happiest points could now be reached, our happiest times could be attained with His joy...The One coming who could not and cannot be described by our words...Joy is with us, because God is with us...Jesus is from above and beyond our earth...And like our greatest love and loves on earth, He can only be described and felt as what one can feel like when one knows he has reached his greatest Hope...Jesus is the King of Hope...And this Hope is felt through the complete expectation of the complete LOVE that only He can give us...