A Thrill of Hope: Returning to the True Meaning of Christmas in a Season of Chaos and Hurry

Christmas is a season of hope, peace, love and joy. It’s a season of gratefulness as we celebrate the birth of king Jesus, our saviour. But is this our lived reality? Often the Christmas season is busy, stressful and chaotic. The stress of finances, family challenges, the loss of a loved one. Christmas can often be the opposite of what we are told it should be. Even worse our culture drives the stress through marketing and corporate greed. So how do we find hope, peace, love and joy in a season that has been hijacked by other things? In Isaiah chapter 9 we are given the answer to this question. Over this Christmas season we are going to explore the prophetic message of hope given by the prophet Isaiah. A message of hope that can help us see the light even in the midst of darkness. As the classic Christmas song “O Holy Night” says “A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices”. We can rejoice even in the midst of our weariness!