A New Hope

*This is the advent devotion that I wrote for our church's devotional book. If you want to see the entire book (written by members and staff of our church) you can visit our church website www.hrbcrichmond.org/advent. You can download it or have it sent to your email daily. To be honest I was really tired when I wrote this so please forgive the lack of style in the writing!*


Acts 2:37-39

A while back I told God that I was stubborn and couldn’t see Him in everyday life. I told him, “God, I just don’t see you in my life. I wish I could, but I can’t” It’s funny how God responds when you are direct and honest with Him. Since that time almost everything I see somehow reminds me of His goodness and grace or in contrast our sin and suffering. It’s been really cool to see God in so many different ways.
              Honestly, the first time that I thought about writing about hope, I thought about the movie Star Wars. Yes, Star Wars. The original Star Wars movie was released in 1977 with the official title being, “Star Wars: A New Hope”

The plot goes something like this. The Universe is being overtaken by the Dark Side. The bad guy of the movie, Darth Vadar is bent on controlling everything. His ship is known as the “Death Star”. I think that says enough about how bad he was.
Out of no where comes an unlikely savior. His name is Luke Skywalker. No one really thought that Luke would end up doing something big until the end of the movie. Luke and a group of others decide that they are going to attack the “Death Star”.  If they could defeat it then there would be hope. Luke and the others attack the “Death Star” hoping to break through its impenetrable defenses. In the end it was only Luke who successfully overcame the “Death Star”.
You might be thinking that this is the most random advent devotional you’ve ever read. Bear with me for a minute.
 A long, long time ago in a land far, far away, sin entered into the world. It has caused trouble and evil ever since. As a result of sin and evil the punishment was death. Many people tried to overcome sin on their own and failed. There seemed to be no hope.
 Then one day in a little known town a child was born. For most of his young life, people thought that this child was rather ordinary. It wasn’t until late in his life that people began to follow him. But there was something different about this man. This man knew how to beat evil and sin. He knew that if he gave up his perfect life as a sacrifice then man could be close to God. That man’s name was Jesus. Three days after he was crucified, Jesus rose from the grave.  In his death and resurrection, he offered mankind a New Hope.
 Using the comparison of Christ and Star Wars isn’t perfect. My hope in this devotion is to help you start seeing that the story of God can be seen in the world around you.

Sin. Death. Redemption. Hope.
 Where do you see these in your life?


Jon Greenhill