Timeless Hope

As in past years, I wrote something for the Advent season at my church, which I read in this morning's service and is posted below. I wrote it while listening to a gorgeous composition by Arvo Pärt, and was fortunate enough to also be able to read it with that same musical accompaniement provided by a very talented pianist and cellist at my church. To experience a taste of that text & music combo (which I think is superior to the text alone), try reading it while listening to this YouTube clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtFPdBUl7XQ (you'll need to cut and paste the link into a new window).

Before the land and the sea,
there was God.
Before skyscrapers and freeways,
there was God.
Before interviews and exams,
there was God.
Before the stock market and unemployment,
there was God.
Before the tumor and chemotherapy,
there was God.
Before old age and the fear of loneliness,
there was God.

And when the former things have passed away
and the last of the infinite stars have faded,
there also will be God,
the Alpha and the Omega,
the Beginning and the End,
the One who can bring beginning out of end,
making all things new.

For He is not only the beginning and the end,
He is the middle too—
this middle where we wait in longing,
this middle that can feel so interminable,
as it must have felt to Mary,
gasping for breath as she labored to deliver her baby,
and as it must have felt to Christ,
gasping for breath on the cross
as He labored to deliver His creation.

Let us remember this in our own gasping labor,
and let this remembrance of God at the beginning,
and the middle, and the end,
lift up our hearts and make us people of hope
in the time that we have been granted.