“Next time you’re found with your chin on the ground there is a lot to be learned so look around.” That’s the beginning of a song I used to teach when I was an English as a Second Language teacher in Argentina. For those who are not familiar with Frank Sinatra, that’s the beginning of one of his famous songs, called “High Hopes.” It has a playful tune that tells you the story of an ant and a ram trying to do impossible things: the ant, trying to move a rubber tree plant and a ram trying to punch a hole in a dam. In the end, they accomplished what seemed impossible. Why? Because they had “high apple pie, in the sky hopes!”
Yesterday I spoke about hope and how important it is and how different it is from wish. There is a stark difference between wish and hope. Let me put it as clear as I can: While both wish and hope speak of a desire for something, hope refers to a belief that the desired outcome is possible, while a wish often suggests a desire for something unlikely or impossible to happen. In other words, hope is more grounded in reality, while a wish belongs to realm of, for the lack of better words, fantasy.
And that’s why when we spoke of the things God has promised us, we are dealing with hope! When the prophets spoke to Israel as she was heading to her doom, they spoke hope. As they were doing that, they also gave us all hope. Renowned Jewish scholar Alfred Edersheim found about 450 prophecies in the Old Testament about the Messiah and as of His first coming, Jesus fulfilled at least 300 of them. Talk about grounded in reality! That’s the hope we have!
And these are some of the promises we hope for: If we have received Jesus, God gave us the power to become sons of God (John 1:12); we will have eternal life (John 10:28); we have become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) and our names are written for ever in the book of life (Revelation 3:5). Despite our sin, despite of who we are, the apostle Paul tells us in Romans that we have become friends of God. Because of that hope, we can find rest in the midst of our daily struggles. because of that hope, we can look at the future in a different light. Because of that hope, we can be certain we are not alone.
Our hope does not depend on wishes, it depends of the reality of our living God. That’s why we have hope, the same hope Paul talked about when he finished the book of Romans as he said “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope”. That’s high apple pie, in the sky hope.
Let’s keep this in mind as we celebrate the fulfillment of the greatest promise God made to us: His only Son coming to Earth. Merry Christmas!
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