One of the most inspiring stories of hope can be found in the book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel was a prophet who lived in exceedingly difficult times, when God’s people had been defeated by the invading Babylonians and carried off from their homeland to live as exiles in a foreign country. They were far from home and far from the security and peace they had known; they had seen the temple destroyed and so were living in fear and anxiety, just as many people do today.

To make matters worse, this state of affairs was because they had refused to listen to God or obey Him. Sometimes, the difficulties we face are our own fault; on other occasions, we face troubles that are not of our own making. Either way, we can feel dispirited and hopeless. Yet in the midst of all this trouble, Ezekiel has a vision in Ezekiel 37 of a Valley of Dry Bones coming to life again as he speaks God’s word into the situation. The bones come together to form skeletons; God’s Spirit comes into them and the bones become living people again.

“Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ ¹² Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. ¹³ Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. ¹⁴ I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’” (Ezekiel 37:12-14)

God spoke a message of hope through Ezekiel to His people, even though they were in exile. Christmas reminds us that God speaks hope into our situations and through Jesus can bring hope to each one of us, no matter where we are or what we are facing.

Repetition is seen by most adults as an enemy; variety is the spice of life, we believe. We crave new experiences and rail against the everyday with its monotony and repetition. The French call it ‘metro, boulot, dodo’, the endless cycle of all work and no play, most of it involving repetition.

At the weekend, I listened to my son practise a new carol for our carol service. It has intricate piano solos in it, interesting chord formation, wonderful glissandos and great bluesy riffs. He listened to the song twice and started to play it.

He had to keep stopping, listening again, practising again and again. He had to remember what he heard and get his fingers to reproduce those notes and rhythms. An hour later, he was still there, repeating phrases, going over it again and again.

Is this kind of repetition boring? In many ways, yes. But it’s the only way to be able to play a tune. Practice (doing a thing repeatedly) is the only way we master any skill. Why else do we send our children to school, to swimming lessons, to dance lessons? We understand they have to do something over and over again in order to master it.

Last week I watched my granddaughter on ‘Purple Mash’, an interactive online educational programme which trains children in mathematical skills. She spent ages with moving fish, counting, adding and subtracting. The repetition of sums involving number bonds is what will improve her ability at mental maths. You have to do something often enough for it to become second nature. Practice really does make perfect!

Repetition in this sense is the pathway to perfection. In the same way, God wants us to consistently and repeatedly do what is right so that ultimately we become more like Him. Don’t despise the monotony of repetition; it’s actually good for us, training us to become more like God.

One of the encouraging things about God’s preparation is that we can trace it back hundreds of years before Jesus was actually born! At Christmas time, we often read the prophecies in the Old Testament which speak about Jesus, long before He actually arrived. In Isaiah 9, a chapter which looks ahead to the birth of Jesus, we read, ‘The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.’ (Is 9:2)

One of the difficult things in our country about this time of year (November through to March) is the darkness. We have relatively few hours of daylight in the daytime compared to June; sunrise is often not until about 8 a.m. and sunset can be about 4 p.m. The weather often adds to the sense of gloom, with clouds, fog, rain and snow adding to darkness. All these factors add to feelings of hopelessness and helplessness. It can be difficult to want to go outdoors or do things; it can be easy to let despair and lethargy wash over you. But the arrival of Jesus brings light into darkness and hope into hopeless situations. Isaiah goes on to say,

‘For 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 Counsellor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
⁷ Of the greatness of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
will accomplish this.’ (Isaiah 9:6-7)

These names and promises associated with Jesus shine light into the darkness of despair and remind us that God is still at work, whether we see this yet or not.

The reason we need this period of Advent is so that we understand the enormity of Christmas and can reflect on why God had to send His Son, Jesus, to be the Saviour of the world. Hope can only fully be understood in the context of what it means to have no hope.

Right now, many people are facing uncertain times. There is economic instability in the world; there are fears about many topics, including how to pay our bills and what we will do to survive winter. There are fears about wars, about the climate, about political issues. We have spent the past two years being bombarded with bad news, and for many people, this has led to a sense of hopelessness and helplessness, anxiety and worry. Hope, the fuel that keeps us going through difficult times, is in short supply, it seems.

Paul tells us that all of us at one point were ‘without hope and without God in the world.’ (Eph 2:12) The first step in finding hope is to realise that the world is a dark place, and that we need God if we are to find our way through to light and day. John says, ‘God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.’ (1 John 1:5) The God who separated the light from the darkness (Genesis 1:3-4) is the reason we have any hope at all. If you’re in a dark place right now, know that Jesus is described as the light of the world (John 8:12) and that His light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome the light. (John 1:5)