For my eyes have seen Your salvation which You have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel.

— Luke 2:30-32

When religious hope dies, all real hope dies with it.

Without God, the aspirations, strivings, and wishes of countless hearts are weighed down by defeats and sorrows; they are broken by hopes never materialized and saddened by relationships gone sour.

We live in a time of rampant unbelief and godlessness. It is, therefore, a time of hopelessness very much like the time in which Paul wrote these words: “without hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12)—an age without hope.

Into such a world came Christ, the hope of the nations.

What a glorious thought to know that all of the hopes of the world were found in that cradle in Bethlehem. For centuries men had hoped that at last a deliverer would come—a redeemer would come to set man free, to deliver him from the shackles that bound him, to open the portal of everlasting life, to deliver him from the blackness of oblivion in the tomb. This hope was ushered into this world on Christmas morning, and it has spread all over the world ever since.

Question to ponder:
What hopes and dreams has Christ fulfilled for you?