I Hope In You

Tonight we welcomed Week 2 of Advent Worship. Two sets of families joined our family tonight so our living room was filled with children. Together they re-built the Creche - preparing room for the Baby Christ. It was a beautiful sight.

We enter Week 2 with continued longing. And one of my favorite prayers is by Henri Nouwen, which I held close to my heart about a year ago this time. Faced with the uncertainty of leaving our mission in Cebu and returning back home, we did not know what 2010 held for us. I knew I had many expectations and desires, but did not know how any of them would play out.

Now I am able to look back with incredible clarity that hindsight often brings. After spending over the first half of the year unemployed and waiting for child, and then to receive a job opportunity and a daughter that exceeded our expectations, I can look at this prayer and know that it was completely and absolutely answered.

With candles in hand, we closed last night's Advent Worship reciting this prayer:


Dear God,

I am full of wishes, full of desires, full of expectations.
Some of them may be realized many many not
But in the midst of all my satisfactions and disappointments
I hope in you.
I know that you will never leave me alone and
will fulfill your divine promises.
Even when it seems that things are not going my way,
I know that they are going your way, and that,
in the end, you way is the best for me.
Oh, Lord! Strengthen my hope
especially when my many wishes are not fulfilled.
Let me never forget that your name is Love.

Amen