Hope Floats

I have never understood that phrase much at all. It was the title of an old Sandra Bullock movie which was (I think) about a woman of questionable reputation coming home after some tragedy and trying to get her life together. She fell in love with a local -- played by Harry Connick, Jr. -- and it ended well. In other words, in the midst of tragedy -- there is hope.
Hope is a funny thing. It is what rises up like a clear bubble in the middle of the muck and mud of our messy lives. Hope, at times, needs to be rearranged. In other words, what we hope for is sometimes a bubble that bursts in the face of life's difficulties. But it can rise again, in another form -- usually, more deliberate and more beautiful than we could ever imagine.
This is the first week of Advent and the theme for this week is simply that: Hope. The world HOPES for salvation, and ultimately a savior comes. But we in the world -- those during Jesus' time as well as those of us living now -- have to rearrange our hope. He wasn't who or what was expected, or even hoped for. On the contrary, he was so much more . . . . .
Advent teaches us to wait, hope and expect -- and one other lesson: nobody, ever, gets to take away -- or get in the way -- of our hope.
It ALWAYS floats.
Come, and share this season as we begin to tell the story of the God who loves us in Jesus the Christ one more time.
a.