Christmas Hope
Part of becoming an adult—and finding true happiness—is the process of discovering your own meaning of Christmas. In a way, we’re all living out our own version of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, trying to sort through our lives and become a little less Scrooge and a little more Fezziwig. At its foundation, this journey is a search for hope.
The heart of Christmas is the celebration of the arrival of the Savior of mankind, offering us hope for salvation and purpose.
One of my favorite scenes from what may be the second greatest Christmas movie of all time, It’s a Wonderful Life, is when the senior angel speaks to the angel-in-training, Clarence:
Senior Angel: A man down on Earth needs our help.
Clarence: Splendid. Is he sick?
Senior Angel: No, worse. He’s discouraged.
I think that’s one of the greatest dangers we face in life: the danger of discouragement—a life without hope.
In 2021, we faced the challenges of a virus that changed our lives and, in many ways, robbed us of that hope. We all became, to some extent, discouraged.
Not necessarily by incompetent leaders or misguided scientists—though they may have played a part. The real cause runs deeper. We lost our sense of direction. Many of us began to plan for a future we believed would be dimmer, harder, and simply worse.
To make things worse, we started to see each other as enemies without salvation. People we disagree with—on politics, on medicine—are seen not just as wrong, but as evil or stupid, and therefore without worth. When you stop believing in the promise of salvation, hope vanishes, and discouragement turns friends into foes.
When I think of Christmas and the birth of Jesus, I focus on what His birth meant—and why, more than two millennia later, we continue to debate not just His existence, but His purpose. What makes the Christmas story endure isn’t Santa Claus—it’s the enduring idea that we have been promised eternal hope.
Christmas is a time to reflect on the promise of Christ’s birth: the promise that we can become better by how we treat one another. The gift of Christmas is the birth of Hope through the birth of a Savior.
I know many of my readers—and even my own children—question the existence or purpose of Jesus and God. But even if you don’t believe, you can still celebrate what Christmas represents: that tomorrow can be brighter for everyone, no matter their past choices or mistakes. Christmas is, above all, a promise of hope.
So, no matter how you choose to celebrate, I wish you a lifetime of hope—and the Merriest of Christmases.
Love, Dad