Advent Devotions: Resurrection hope
Editor’s note: This Advent season, Bread Blog is running a series of devotionals written by staff, alumni, and friends of the San Francisco Theological Seminary, which is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
By Will Malone
What place has sorrow with the knowledge of the goodness of God? What place has disappointment with the knowledge of a good future?
The promise we have from Scripture is that "He heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds," but it doesn't stop there. Paul says "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." This is the perspective of hope; this is the perspective of resurrection.
Resurrection informs our future; it informs how we love, how we forgive, and how we heal. To live with our minds set on the present sufferings is to forget what we know in resurrection -- that it won't get better, it will be best.
Some may know better than we. Some certainly have tasted and seen, and we have heard their report. We will suffer, that is a part life. But our joy will be complete -- that is the essence of resurrection.
And so let us live from the perspective of hope. Let us love and forgive and heal out of the knowledge of the goodness of God, who loves us and is with us this Advent season.
Will Malone is pursuing his Master of Divinity at San Francisco Theological Seminary.
We will suffer, that is a part life. But our joy will be complete -- that is the essence of resurrection.
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