Dear Kaleid Ladies,
Good morning to you! And welcome to Advent…the beginning of the Church calendar and a sacred season of deep waiting, longing, and hoping.
This week we lit the first Advent candle. The candle of Hope.
What is hope?
At Kaleid we talk a lot about stories…our stories, others’ stories, God’s story, the story of our place. We do this because human beings are meaning-making creatures. We constantly seek to fit the data of the occurrences of our lives into a bigger narrative so that things make sense. We are always subconsciously asking and answering, “What makes this make sense?”
Hope is believing that God’s story is the story that makes our lives make sense.
In hope, we turn expectantly toward the grand narrative of God’s love. His faithful, revealing and reconciling love comes to us in Christ.
Jesus is Word and Light. Jesus is God made flesh.
Words make meaning. Light reveals reality. Words and light make things make sense. Wasn’t it kind of God to give us clarity in Jesus?
Jesus comes to make meaning so that we can walk in the light of God’s story and so that our hearts can hope against hope, even when we are tempted to make meaning through the lesser, false stories that are so easy to hear being told in our world.
In Jesus, God shows us the grand story in the flesh. In Jesus, we make sense of what it looks like to be fully human. Seeing the humanity of God in Christ helps us make meaning of our own humanity. It helps us hope.
God is relentlessly committed to shedding light, to giving words, to putting flesh on the grand narrative of his faithful love so that we can turn toward that light, making meaning of our complicated lives even in the midst of brokenness.
When we are tempted to overlay our lives with some false narrative, some untrustworthy meaning, Advent reminds us to stop, to discern, and to hope—to turn toward the light of the story that is told in word and flesh and to walk in that light. Just for today.
We love you, friends!
Oh, and if you’d like to join us for the Advent Contemplative Circle, “The Word Was Made Flesh” on Wednesday mornings at 6:30 or Thursdays at noon, we would love to have you! It’s not too late! We began this morning, and you can catch us tomorrow or next week! Sign up here.
Gratefully,
The Kaleid Team
P.S. This word study on hope from The Bible Project is wonderful!
And, we wanted to share two opportunities to serve at Christmastime, both of which empower families to shop for their children. Learn more about 3D Girls here and donate to the Friends of Refugees Christmas Store here.