HIGH HOPES
(my Christmas card to you this year)
…the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened…” (Luke 2:15)
Don’t get your hopes up. That’s a phrase we share with others to ensure they manage their expectations, especially when the stakes are high. Don’t get your hopes up. That’s a phrase we say quietly to ourselves when guarding against disappointment. Don’t get your hopes up. But, quite unapologetically, glaringly, Christmas says the opposite. Christmas tells us that our hopes have not, in fact, been high enough.
Christmas shouts: Get your hopes up! Get your hopes up! Get your hopes up! Gather up all the hope you’ve got and set it down into this manger, onto the shoulders of this child, who will not be crushed or overwhelmed by the hope of all the world. Somehow, the child will handle, even exceed the expectations.
Get your hopes up. Lift your hopes up. Merry Christmas.
Luke Knight 