Hope Has a Name (Friday Devotional)

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

- Hebrews 10:23

Hope is an abstract thing—you can’t see it or touch it, can’t draw it on paper or find it on a map. Its intangible nature is perplexing and even frustrating sometimes. So as a result, we tend to personify hope—to place all our hopes in specific individuals.

You see this in sports on Draft Day. Long-suffering fans dream every year of the same things: a championship trophy, a parade through the city streets, and a banner hanging in the arena for generations to come. And on Draft Day, those hopes come to rest on the shoulders of whichever fresh-faced 20-something the front office decides to give a signing bonus. For years to come, that young man goes from being more than just an athlete—he is now the symbol of all the franchise hopes to be.

You see the same kind of thing when it comes to leadership, whether in business or politics. When the time comes for a change in leadership, all of the vague dreams people have for the future come to rest on the new boss. Whatever concrete plans he or she may have are often subsumed by the hopes of their followers, because ultimately the leader's task is not just to put plans in motion, but to be a lodestar for a bright future.

We need hope to keep going, we thrive on it, we search for it—but we don’t like for it to remain abstract. We want hope to have a name.

The Good News, the news that Gabriel brought to Mary so long ago and that was fulfilled 9 months later on a Bethlehem night, is that hope has come, and we know his name. For all who long to know that they are not alone in this world, that someone cares for them, hope has a name. For all who yearn for justice in a cold, cruel world, hope has a name. For all who wonder if redemption is even possible, hope has a name. For all who look to the heavens and cry out for mercy, hope has a name. For all who know the sting of grief and dare to dream that death is not the end, hope has a name.

His name is Immanuel, God with us. His name is Messiah, the anointed one. His name is Jesus. O come, let us adore him.