Advent Devotional – December 7

A grand intervention
Please read Esther 4:1-17

With the advent of Christmas, we often rejoice in the hope that comes from joy of the season and the anticipation of the coming holidays. There is always an air of expectation in the festivities we enjoy, the food and decorations, the traditions, and the light in children’s eyes as they hope to receive long awaited gifts sitting under the tree.

Hope can look very different in the eyes of various people in all walks of life. Yet there is always a yearning for fulfill-ment of our expectations. In the fourth chapter of Esther, we see a different glimpse of hope. Mordecai approaches Esther, now queen of Persia, and is openly mourning, devastated over the knowledge of the edict that has passed in deception of the king. Mordecai has the task of informing Esther that an annihilation of their people has been decreed. As he leaves Esther, upon her direction to go and fast and pray on her behalf as well as the behalf of their entire nation, he is walking away in a confident expectation that there will be a grand intervention, an intervention that will change the lives of their people and generations to come.

What an enormous task for such a simple and humble person such as Esther, someone so ordinary to have to take such risk for so many people. In the same manner our hope came in the still of the night, under the light of the star of Bethlehem. The light of the world came as a simple, humble baby to be the intervention for us, to change our lives and the lives of the generations to come. As we carry this light in us through this season, may we all bravely, open-ly pray that others may share in this same hope of a new life in Christ.

Lord, as we walk through this world, may our eyes be open to those around us. Help to share your gift, and extend hope to those we meet every day. Give us the courage to stand in the gap and offer prayer and the message of your gift this Christmas. Amen.
by Tanya Davis