Hope and Fear...

This was the theme for our church service today. The second Sunday of Advent. Season of waiting, anticipating, preparing... When the speaker was getting into his message, and started to speak of Mary, and her hope/expectation for Jesus, her son, God's Son and how she must have been disappointed something struck me. Actually, several things struck me. I had never realised, that, as a Mum, Mary must have fought with all her strength to not run up the hill and carry that Cross herself, to continue in her "I am your servant, may Your word to me be fulfilled" attitude. I have prayed countless times that, when the boys are poorly, I would be the one poorly, so they wouldn't have to feel the pain. But what really, and I mean really, struck me was how strongly this idea of hope/disappointment spoke to me. How hope, which is eternal, alongside faith and love, is also so fragile.
We must hold onto hope gingerly, lest we crush it with the weight of our expectations. And lest our inclination to control even the outcome of what we would like to see happen blinds us to what God is bringing about. Take Mary, with her, understandable desire (in my mind's eye), to take His Cross, and his death and his pain away. Had she done that God's plan of salvation would have come undone, and this world would be doomed! But she stayed back, she bit back her disappointment, and she let go of her hope.
But she didn't just give up, I believe Mary offered up her hope, and waited to see what God would do.
Hope is a bit like a snowflake, fragile, strong, eternal... It keeps, hand in hand with faith and love. Hope is nourished by love, and it is validated by faith. It is informed by grace, knowing that in all things God provides, gives and works towards good in our lives. Because, at the end of it all, when all is said and done, these things remain, Hope, Faith and Love...