Luke 2:1-7
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.
Approximately two thousand years ago, before Jesus was born, there was no Christmas Day...Twas the night before our first Christmas...There are literally the pains of childbirth...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 was expecting a Child...But this Child is a Child, not only of Great Destiny, but of Great Hope...This Child would also bring Truth to our world...And all of mankind and the whole creation had been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to this time -longing for Something in the world that seemed to be missing...It was and is this Particular Child...
The world up to this time, and even today, seems to give us a certain element of happiness, truth, faith, and hope...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...Something is just not quite there...And we have to wonder what this might be...What is life missing?...Life on earth seems at least a little empty (or so it seems to me), even in the greatest moments...Something (and I cannot put my finger on it) is missing...The happiness, the truths we know, the faiths we have, and the hopes that we need, somehow need and needed strengthening...
Hope is not something in the present...Hope is something that is in the future...Truth was coming...Hope was coming...And people's faith would be strengthened through the coming of this Truth and Hope...Without this faith and confidence in what we hope for and cannot see -man is a little lost, a little empty...It is a feeling of not quite being right...We are on the outside looking in...But Hope was coming and this Hope would help us forget about any emptiness and promise us life to the fullest...The thing that 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 be a fulfillment of prophecy...
This Something More is coming...This Something more is the reason we have Christmas Eve and the reason we have a 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, they could be attained, for One is coming who could not and cannot be described in our words...He is from above and beyond the brink...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...And this Hope is felt through the complete expectation of the complete Love that only He can give...