The other morning I was driving to work and I was listening to my favorite Christmas song, "O Holy Night" by Mariah Carey. I have listened to this song a million times. And that morning I heard this one line for the first time: "The thrill of hope". It's funny how any times you can listen to a song but not really hear what it's saying.
I started thinking about the phrase, "the thrill of hope". When you feel hopeless and hope comes along it is thrilling. Hope is the difference between despair & death AND pressing on and life. When something promising comes along there is a new thrill.
"The thrill of Hope, the weary world rejoices." I LOVE that line!
A weary world rejoices. Weary from trying to earn God's love by our own work and sense of earning. Weary from nothing ever fulfilling our ever-thirsty hearts. Weary from the mundane-ness and dull-ness of life without a deep awareness of God's infinite love.
Jesus is the thrill of hope. He was the thrill of hope on that night he was born into the world. And he is the thrill of hope in my heart today. The thrill of hope - not for something or someone, but the thrill of Hope for God himself. The thrill that we no longer have to earn anything from God in Jesus. The thrill that we can finally find true satisfaction in Jesus. The thrill of knowing the intimate love of God in Jesus. The thrill that one day all our tears will be wiped away, nothing will ever wear-out, and we will live in perfection with God.
The thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices in all that we now have hope for in Jesus.
