Hope Is For Everyone

By Pastor Jeffrey Smith

Sometimes we ask in the middle of a bad situation if there is any hope.  As a culture, it’s possible that broken families and divided people cause us to ask that question.

Sometimes we see other people around us and we might think that hope is for them but not for ourselves.  Hope is for everyone.  Jesus’ life is the story of God coming down to earth and the ultimate story of hope coming right to each one of us.  As we enter into the Christmas season, we get the chance to be reminded of exactly that. 

Sometimes we like to exclude ourselves out of the hope that Jesus gives because we feel that we aren’t good enough or religious enough.  However, some of the first people that came to worship Jesus on Earth were people that practiced astrology, what to most could be considered an evil practice.  Still they came seeking Jesus with hope to worship Him.  They followed the star of Bethlehem to the stable after studying the prophecy and knowing that the Messiah was going to be born following those events.  Through these men’s gifts and talents with astrology God brought them to Him to worship Him; even though culturally they weren’t Jewish, which were the only people that worshiped God at the time.  He brought people out of the east to worship the Messiah. 

The Magi spent their lives studying something and it was that very thing that brought them to Jesus and to hope.  This Christmas when we think of the Magi we can remember no matter where we are or where our loved ones are, there is hope for everyone.