The thrill of hope

I love Christmas music. Really I do. I'm one of those annoying people who will start listening to it in the beginning of November. My all time favorite Christmas carol is "O Holy Night". The beauty of the words and the truth behind them are so powerful.

"O Holy night, the stars are brightly shining
It is the night of our dear Savior's birth
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
Til He appeared and the soul felt its worth
The thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn
Fall on your knees

O hear the angel voices
O night divine
O night when Christ was born
O night divine
O night, O night divine

And in His Name, all oppression shall cease
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we
Let all within us praise his holy name
Christ is the Lord
Their name forever praise we

Noel, Noel
O night, O night Divine
Noel, Noel
O night, O night Divine
Noel, Noel
O night, O holy Divine"

Our Heavenly Father could have left us right where we were in our world of "sin and error" pining for something more. But He didn't. He came down and met us right where we were. He appeared and our souls finally felt their worth. We knew that we were created for a purpose and that purpose became clear when He loved us enough not to leave us on our own. Our church did a series entitled The Thrill of Hope several Christmases ago and I have been re-listening to them all over again. It is such a great series for Christmas and I would encourage you to check them out here.

The thrill of hope. I. love. these. words. It is because of Him that we can have hope. The past two years of our lives have been nothing like we would have ever planned. And if I am being 100% honest, hope isn't really the first word that comes to mind when I try to sum it all up. We first thought we'd be celebrating Christmas this year with with an active almost-one-year-old. Then plans changed and we thought we'd be celebrating with a four month old. Then plans changed again. The funny thing is that while both of these thoughts bring a lot of hurt; they don't take away the fact that we will still celebrate. While I could have every excuse in the world to throw myself a holiday pity party, I choose hope. We will celebrate the very fact that our Heavenly Father who knows the end of our story and every tear we cry along the way came down from above to meet us right where we are. In the middle of our sorrow and pain. It is because of this very fact that we can experience the thrill of hope. Hope in what is to come because of what has already been done for us. So this year, while we will not be celebrating baby's first Christmas, we will choose to celebrate hope knowing that our babies are having a far bigger Christmas celebration that we could ever plan.

And now I will leave you with a version of this song that will leave you smiling... if you're a child of the 90's...