Advent is Here! Week 1 -- Promise

Happy Advent! So begins the season of anticipation...each week has a theme, as our insert in church describes. Today, we start thinking about the promise of Advent.

I posted last week that I would try to post daily during Advent...that borders on being a promise. One that will be insanely hard for me to keep! As I write tonight, I'm blank. It has been a tough God day for me -- we've had sick kids since last Wednesday night. And Emersyn, the baby, is still sick. We've prayed, pleaded, cursed, and yelled at God over the past days, and we've gotten silence! No miracle, no healing, just a baby throwing up and wanting her milk. That skews my thinking for the moment, I've got to say.

At dinner tonight, we talked as a family about promises and which "God promises" we really like. The one that came to mind for me was the promise that He will work all things out to the benefit of those who believe...hmmmmm....interesting considering the circumstances of our past week.

But think about the original Advent...Israel, occupied by Rome. Desparate for saving, for freedom, for ANYTHING from God that would give them a glimmer of hope that He stillwas there and cared about them. The promise He made to their ancestors still held for them, to bless and to prosper, even if it seemed like it was never going to happen.

Isn't that what it's about...holding on to the hope that God will indeed work things out, as He promised? It might not look like we hope -- our family got a weekend at home, resting, quiet, together , which is something we've been needing. It just didn't happen like we'd 'planned'. And Israel go thier Savior, but they didn't expect a baby...

So what promises are you hanging on to? Which ones are you particularly thankful for? And are they being kept in a way that you didn't expect?