We are bound to experience seasons of life that affect us differently.

This post is in congruence with Seasons: Advent Devotional series. To learn more, click here. 

Our first mantra of hope is this: that we are bound to experience different seasons of life and each one will affect us differently.

To prepare for this post, read Luke 1:26-56, Isaiah 43:16-19, and Hebrews 10:23. 
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How fitting it is that we begin our series with Mary and Elizabeth’s story. When hearing these stories every Advent season, it can be easy to gloss over the immaculate detail and connections these two women have with one another in their experiences. The fact that both of these women are facing similar situations in dramatically different ways are a testament to this mantra we find ourselves with. This mantra really means that even though we may find ourselves in the same situations as those around us, they are bound to affect us differently. To both of these women, having a child is unthinkable: Mary being a virgin and unwed to Joseph and Elizabeth being barren in her old age. That’s why I find this Isaiah passage so necessary. Often times we need that push from God to believe in He who is doing a “new thing”: who is doing the unthinkable and is making it possible, He who inspires the words of Mary’s song in Luke and whose promises allow us to hold “unswervingly to the hope that we profess.” 

In 2016, the Chicago Cubs famously won the World Series championship winning their first title since 1908. Being from the Midwest, that day was probably one of the most magical days to most Cubs fans. One might think how it was possible that the Cubs miraculously won a championship title putting out a 108 year drought. During Game 7, the Cubs and now Cleveland Guardians (then Indians) were tied 6-6 after the ninth inning when a sudden rainstorm hit, causing a 17-minute rain delay. After coming back, Ben Zobrist who was famously 0-4 for the night ended up batting into the left corner allowing Albert Almora to score for them making the game 7-6. After him, Miguel Montero ended up hitting it into that left corner again allowing Almora to run making it an 8-6 game only for Cleveland to only score one run to finish out the inning and grant the Cubs their title. This story to me is a reminder of this mantra, that we might find ourselves in a season like the Cubs: facing a 108 year drought with no hope and the only satisfaction is that they’ve made it this far. However when God sends the unthinkable, in this case a rain delay, they are able to find the hope that rests in Isaiah 43 and forget the past and make a new thing. Prove history wrong. I’m not even a Cubs fan (or a baseball fan in general) but this story is a reminder that God is able to use our unthinkable seasons of life and to make them into something new. Do you believe that He can do that with your life, too?