I Hope All Is Well

by Jody Long
In his book, The Hopeful Heart, John Claypool quotes Father William Inge’s definition of hope: “Hope sees that which is possible, but is not yet.” This is where we begin our Advent journey this Sunday. We begin with hope, the “Cinderella sister” of 1 Corinthians 13 according to Bishop William Frey. We spend a lot of time focusing on faith and love because they seem, at first glance, more tangible to us. We even have specific Christian holy days for both: for faith, Easter, and for love, the feast of St. Valentine (despite its American trappings!). However, there are not many days set aside for hope.

That’s why celebrating every Sunday of Advent is important. As we anticipate the coming – the advent – of the Christ Child, we are compelled to move through the web of feelings of the holiday season: hope, love, joy, and peace. Before we get to the others, though, we celebrate hope. For many of us hope is hard to come by, especially this year. Family tragedies, family struggles, job and employment issues, national and global concerns dominate our daily lives.

Who has time to “see what is possible, but is not yet”? We all do. The coming Christ Child certainly could have found a better place to make his entrance than in the poverty of a young couple, so poor that a barn would serve as a delivery room. He easily could have found a better time frame for his coming than the cruel, premodern time of the Roman Empire. He certainly could have found a “more deserving” couple – at least in the world’s eyes – than Mary and Joseph and chosen a comfortable life. But he didn’t.

In fact, his coming into that place, time, and family illustrates the beauty of hope. If hope really is seeing what is possible but is not yet, then Jesus could not have chosen a better entrance. For much of the world then – and now – finds itself in the situation of Mary and Joseph: poor, outcast, and oppressed. The Christ child came to bring hope to the multitudes then and now that long for deliverance from circumstances of their own making and those beyond their control.

A practice I began long ago was to close most correspondence with the phrase, “I hope all is well.” It is not a throwaway line. It is my sincere hope that the great vision of what could be but is not yet grounds and sustains friend and foe alike. It is in the midst of the “everyday-ness” of life that we need this vision of possibility to make through the Advent season and every day of our lives. As we begin Advent, I hope all is well with you, now and in the days until we celebrate together the coming of the Harbinger of Hope in our lives.