It's easy to get wrapped up in hope since life would be bleak without it and unbearable, if hope's source, love, was absent. That's what the birth of Jesus is all about, the source of our thanksgiving translated into thanks-living.

There's another hope unnoticed by all of us. It is a hope dependent on us. It is God's hope for all of us. It's been around since day one of creation. It hasn't changed much since. The roller coaster ride of human history contains an unbroken line of hope unwavering in the face of unkept promises and faithless responses by far too many. The messengers God sent were ignored, rejected, or removed: darkness was preferable to light.

God's hope became Light itself. God's Love took on our human condition. Light, Love, and Life came and shared our human existence. Were it a fairy tale, it would have a happy ending. As it is, the human ending was horribly sad and violent. Still, it was that ending which made an end to endings forever. God's hope remained intact: life will not cease ever again.

God's hope still is: do we believe? Will we accept? How will we respond?