You ask, "How can Christmas be past but not over"?  Because the incarnation (God is for us and God is with us) is possible every day.  Our prepositional God is faithful to us and strengthens our hope.  So, what are the major differences between human hope and divine hope?  And if so, how are they different?

The problem of human hope is an act of wish based in chance.

When an individual casually says "I hope I get this job promotion, or I hope the Alabama Crimson Tide wins the BCS College Football Championship"...it is ultimately just for a few.  Because, it is mostly spoken as a wishful act based on taking a chance for an answer to a request.  Sounds philosophical I know.  But this is how we often express our hope.

Human hope expresses itself selfishly while others have their hope unfulfilled.  Ultimately, human hope will fade.  However, human hope is what we often transfer to the equation when we talk about hope in God.  We've all been trained in human hope.

Divine hope is about an act of will based in certainty.

In contrast, divine hope is for all and not just a few.  Plus, divine hope is forever. This sets it differently from human hope.  For the most part, we are rarely able to detect it in ourselves.

Do you ever hope for something beyond human hope or for God to do something not possible with just humanity hoping in humanity?  If so, what is it?  For instance, do you ever hope for world peace?  Or, since world peace seems so highly unlikely, do you ever stop hoping for it?

Even when we read hope in the Scriptures our interpretation and especially the close reading of the text itself has been so diluted with human hope which may explain why we never get fired up about Jesus.  Could it be that we underestimate the depth, the power, and the myster of this divine hope?

Finally, let me ask another question.  How can this divine hope go beyond human hope?  Umm.

Something of ours will have to die in order for something of God's to live in me.

You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel that has come to you.  Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God.   
    Colossians 1:5-6 NRSV

The tension driving this article is how divine hope can go beyond human hope.  The antidote is found in the above verses.  Using gardening language, the biblical writer speaks of a hope "springing up" (green shoots if you will) growing like a new crop with at first, new growth shooting up through the receptive soil, then reaching full maturity and bearing fruit. But before this new gr,owth (green shoot) appears, something critical must first happen.  The seed must die in order to live.

Something of ours....something that belongs....is credited to and cherished by us must first die before something of God's can ever live inside us.  This is the incarnation and the fulfillment of divine hope.  "Be born in us today!"

So, as we approach the end of this decade, what belongs to you that will have to die first?  The anser can be different for all of us.  However, the termination process of whatever it may be is absolutely esssential before anything of God's can occupy  the sacred space that was once reserved for something else.

The mystic Meister Eckhart once said, "We are celebrating the feast of the Eternal Birth which God the Father has borne and never ceases to bear in all eternity....But if it takes not place in me, what avails it?  Everything lies in this, that it should take place in me."

Think about it for a moment.  Divine hope is about an act of will based in certainty which brought us to Christmas and the Christ who was born in Bethlehem long ago can be born anew today in all of us on any day....not just at Christmas.

Barry is Founder and President of Ministry Indicators of Jackson, Missouri, a consulting group for churches who are ready for renaissance.  He is a United Methodist pastor and also serves as a leadership consultant and coach for the Missouri Conference of United Methodist Churches.  For questions and comments email Barry at bwinders53@cablerocket.com