Author: Rev. Audrey Webber
Reading: Luke 21:25-36
Meditation
What does hope look like when everything around us seems to be crashing down? As many psychologists have written about, we often confuse hope with optimism. We sometimes think of hope as looking on the bright side of things, thinking we will only have the best outcomes in all experiences. In reality, hope is much deeper and more meaningful than a “looking at the world through rose-colored glasses” mentality.
Hope looks a lot more like justice – a change in how we view the world. Hope is a mentality, not necessarily something we feel. Hope can look like community and finding a place in it. Hope looks like our Grief Support Group – making connections with each other on our journeys of grief. As we always say in this group, our journeys all look different, and no two grief journeys look the same. Still, we can hold each other up and offer even in the midst of complete disorientation as found in our Scripture passage – this cosmic movement – that we still know that Jesus’ “words will never pass away.” God is still there with us. We can hold onto God, hold onto each other, and rely on our community when life gets hard. I often say at the end of prayers when I am praying with so many of you: May you, God, be the last thing on our minds as we go to bed tonight, and the first thing when we wake up in the morning.” It is in this that we can find our hope. We are never deserted. We are always found.
This Advent, may we at PCM embody the hope of Christ’s coming, finding strength in hope, our care for each other, and leaning into the fact that God is still there today, tomorrow, and always.
