The housing bubble has burst.
The stock market has developed wild mood swings.
Banks and automakers are begging for bailouts.
Unemployment is rapidly approaching double digits.
Retailers are expecting a bleak shopping season.
Also…
Healthcare is a mess.
Cold-war fears are starting to bubble up again.
Fears of terror attacks are returning.
And so, we enter the Christmas season as a nation in deep despair. A glance at the latest headlines is argument enough that the world as we know it has gone over the brink and is headed for an unpleasant destruction.
We are worried, afraid and angry. We are running out of money and patience. We are facing a time of deep and gripping uncertainty and our souls are unsettled.
It’s bad. It’s probably worse than we think it is. Thanksgiving for many came and went without thanks, without peace and without hope. The world is a dark and frightening place at this point in history.
On the other side of history, light came into a dark world without hope, without peace and with little to give thanks for. A star brought news of God’s answer to our despair on the outskirts of Bethlehem 2,000 years ago. In the time it takes to deliver a baby, a new hope began to fill a waiting world.
It is that hope we remember each year at this time. Perhaps this year, in the dire situation we find ourselves in, we will truly understand how much the Savior is still needed. “The Christmas Story” as we like to call it is no longer confined to the ancient past. It is still relevant. It is still the hope to which a frightened and desperate world clings.