A Clear Hope

A Reflection on the First Reading for November 28th, 2021:
First Sunday of Advent

---

Jeremiah
33.14-16

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.”
​

On a solitary walk through the woods recently, I noticed the leaves, all but a few, lying on the ground. A sadness came over me as I mourned the beauty of the autumn season—a time of particular splendour in Nova Scotia. Moving around the next turn though, I noticed something else: sooner than I usually could, I saw the lake through the nakedness of the trees, and I breathed in the gift of this clarity.


In the barrenness, there is clarity.


I find it to be a truth, in the experience of my own heart, that even life can obstruct my view of Life. Even beauty can distract me from Beauty.






The kingdom of Judah was suffering in Jeremiah’s time. In those days, Babylon invaded and besieged Judah. They even destroyed their temple. Jeremiah, seeking some clarity amidst the clutter and confusion, writes from a place of anguish and grief as these emotions collide simultaneously with God’s hope and a promise for a new future. One might say that the barrenness of his heart offered a place for God’s hope to shine through the clearing. This is the gift of God’s providence—His go-beforeness that affords us an eternal hope when it seems all is lost.


Providence is a deeply mysterious and inexplicably comforting thing. There have been many ways in the recent years of my life that God has used a “Jeremiah” to forecast hope into my journey. Many of those times, I didn’t agree that hope was even a possibility, but it always was—because He always is. There have also been many times when I couldn’t see the “forest for the trees” so to speak, because my life, or more accurately, my mind, was cluttered with stories, lies, worries, and other meaningless preoccupations. In fairness, the clutter has also occurred during times of legitimate confusion because the circumstances of my life were too much to bear, and hope seemed to me an ancient fable. It’s also true that through these very same trials, I have been stripped as bare as a late autumn tree, and His hope, healing, and prophesy have been received with the utmost clarity.


As we embark on our journey through Advent, loosening our grip on the season of Ordinary Time, God calls us into this tension. In the spaces where we are clinging to the warmth and greenery of the season gone by, He calls us to look longingly into the deep purple of the crisp night sky with trust, hope, and a remembrance of His promises.




Let us pray:
Loving Father, I thank You for going before me always; for Your power, Your providence, Your righteousness, Your hope. Purify my heart and mind of worldly beauty and life to make way for Your eternal Beauty and Life. I cling only to Your promises, Father, and trust You in all things. Amen.




Lori MacDonald

---