Anticipation is a powerful emotion.  

We can be in an incredibly dark season, thinking that there’s no way through and that how it is now is the only way it can ever be. Then, often unexpectedly, something happens that moves our attention from the present to the future.  

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An invitation arrives.  

Someone you love says they’re coming for a visit.  

An event gets announced that you’ve been wanting to experience.  

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And while the difficulty of the present may not have changed, a glimmer of goodness and light in the future enlivens our hearts in ways that sustain us in the darkness.  

This is what we see in the lives and messages of the minor prophets in the Bible. Each one lived in a time of hardship and desperation. They moved through their days in full awareness of a societal breakdown happening all around them. Corruption, abuse of power, oppression of the poor, the threat of military invasion, and economic collapse dominated the headlines of their day.  

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Pervasive darkness.  

Inevitable despair.  

Never-ending brokenness.  

But then, a glimmer.  

God spoke and whispered new promises to the prophets.  

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Yes, the days were full of evil, but it was not the whole story. God told his prophets to speak a message of Hope, Peace, Joy and Love that would one day be fulfilled and embodied in their Messiah who was coming to set everything right. These messages were not a disregarding of reality. They were promises that served as waypoints on the road to redemption.  

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These same prophecies, spoken centuries ago, still serve the purposes of God for us today. As we enter the season of Advent, we are painfully aware of the darkness all around us. But it is not the whole story. God has not abandoned us to a cruel fate. Hope, Peace, Joy and Love have come to us in the person of Jesus and his presence with us changes everything.  

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So, what are we to do? What is the invitation to us this Advent season? We watch for the glimmer. Turn our ears to the promises. Anticipate the Light. Open our hearts in readiness for what God has in store. In the midst of the darkness and all that seems irredeemable, we will listen to what God is saying through his prophets. We will:  

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Make room for Hope. 

Make room for Peace. 

Make room for Joy. 

Make room for Love. 

Make room for Jesus.