Defiant, Gentle Hope

To us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

“Hope is a defiant verb.” Ann Voskamp’s declaration about hope, spoken from a stage years and years ago, caught my attention.

Hope is most definitely a noun. I mentally argued with Ann from the bleachers, even as I wrote her statement in my cute notebook, doodling around the margins, processing her words. I’d always thought of hope as somewhat soft and gentle. If I were to assign a color to the idea of hope, it would probably be a pretty, light pink. If I were to assign feelings, they would be bubbly and happy. Ann’s words had me reconsidering these ideas and wondering whether my hope and Ann’s hope could both be correct.

It turns out that—officially—hope is a noun and a verb. And just as hope can be a soft, bubbly, baby pink, I’ve discovered it is also gritty, hard as granite, and a white so blindingly bright you can scarcely glance at it. Sometimes I need the comforting, softer version of hope—a compassionate reassurance that Jesus is our confidante, our Rabbi filled with encouragement, wisdom, and gentle correction as we strive to live as he did. But there are also times in which I desperately need my unwavering, unyielding Savior, the undefeated warrior who laid down his life for me, standing between me and the enemy of my soul as a fierce protector and shield.

Friends, Jesus is both. He is our greatest hope: noun and verb, gentle and unyielding, compassionate and fierce. He is the only Son of our heavenly Father, the world’s Savior, sent as a babe in the humblest of beginnings to a teenage, unwed mother faced with no room at the inn, to intersect and forever alter the path of humankind. I cannot think of a Christmas gift I need more this year than the dual hopes found in Jesus Christ.

Julie

Today’s Act of Gratitude

Make your own wish list of hope on this Christmas Day, thanking God for the gift of defiant, gentle hope found in Jesus.