What do you hope for? What holy dream keeps you searching in the midst of darkness?
I don’t mean a list for Santa Claus – but we could all learn something from the earnestness and energy: of childlike anticipation. Most of us adults are too shy or fearful or even ashamed to name our big and lasting hopes. We make do with lesser pursuits, like shopping for things that won’t answer our hopes for more than an instant.
Christian communities are places of hope. Were all in the same boat—we’re looking for home, we want to belong, we want to be valued, we want to be welcomed in a place of safety and warmth by people who love us. Once we get a little experience of that, we just might have enough courage to go on back out there and get to work on our deepest, most fervent hopes. We gather as a community to catch a glimpse of a dream that’s big enough and encouraging enough to begin to drive out fear and where we can begin to experience a deep and abiding and transforming hope.