Every Good Gift: A 28-Day Advent DevotionalSample

What makes a life good? The world would tell us it is the things that come wrapped in pretty paper and get placed under a Christmas tree. It may tell us that it is the glittering parties, the specialty drinks or the busyness of the season. And for a holly, jolly moment we might get swept up in the ways that the world fills the empty spaces and broken places of life with festive distractions. 

These are certainly good things, but they aren’t what make a good life. 

The good life only comes with hope.

Hope is a way of life ushered in, not with tinsel and trimmings, but with the tidings of a babe in a manger. God gave us the gift of hope in Christ and with it, the good life. This good life is not one where loss, grief, trouble or trials are absent, but one where we experience life at its fullest with a hope that helps us hold onto what is good.

A child was born, a son was given to us and His words resound today: “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)

Hope received and hope given. This is the key to the good life. This Advent season, let’s exercise wisdom amidst festive distractions that can hoodwink us into believing they are what make our lives good. Let’s remember and reflect on the true good life together. The good life that comes with hope and the good life that gives hope.

James 3:13 says, “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.”

Wisdom and understanding are practical qualities, the tools we use to orient our lives around the truth that Jesus is the giver of true hope. They help us to make decisions that enable us to live the good life. They help us demonstrate hope to the world around us and determine what makes the deeds we do good.

When we are the recipients of hope and truly understand what that means for us, worship will spring up in us and shape humility in us. And humility is necessary to invite others into the good life because hope cannot originate with us. Hope is only found in Jesus, God’s great gift to us. 

The good life only comes with hope. Hope received and hope given.

Clara, an eight-year-old girl who lives in the Colombian desert, understands the good life. Clara lives with her mother and her two little sisters. Her mother is without a job and suffers the stress of providing for her family in a community where resources are scarce and the pandemic has only worsened hunger, need and hopelessness. But when Pastor Enis from the Compassion centre in Clara’s community asked her about the meaning of hope, she answered clearly, “Hope means to wait for my mom to arrive home with food for us. And I feel happy when the church delivers food for us. Thank you, pastor, for giving us the food we eat."

For Clara, the good life means receiving hope that was shared through good deeds done in humility and wisdom. As we journey through this Advent season together and reflect on our good life, let’s commit to help others receive it too. 

Prayer:

God, you are the Giver of hope. As I begin this Advent season, help me to reflect and rejoice in how the hope of Christ is the reason I have the good life. Let that worship stir me up to give hope to others through my good deeds, reflecting You to a world that so desperately needs hope. Amen.