The Burj Dubai tower in Dubai, United Arab Emirates is the tallest man-made structure in the world. It stands at 818 meters tall. If you laid that tower on its side, it would take up just under 9 football fields or, for us Canadians, over 13 hockey rinks. By the time it is complete, it will have required over 430,000 cubic yards of concrete and taken 22 million man-hours of labour; at a cost of over $4 billion.

It seems we are fascinated with “bigger and better”. We want faster computers, bigger buildings, and larger televisions (with high definition, of course). We get so caught up in the bigger and better that we forget to value the “least of these”. Fortunately, God doesn’t forget about the little guy.

Take a look at some of the people God used: Abraham, the coward who cannot believe the promise. Jacob, the cheat who struggles with everybody. Joseph, the immature and arrogant teen. Moses, the impatient murderer who cannot wait for God. Gideon, the cowardly Baal-worshipper. Samson, the womanizing drunk. David, the power abusing adulterer. Solomon, the unwise wise man. Hezekiah, the reforming king who could not quite go far enough. And finally, a very young Jewish girl from a small village in a remote corner of a great empire.

It is amazing how God uses under qualified and inexperienced people to do His work. He could have used “bigger” and “better” but he chose to do His work through the plain and ordinary. The greatest example of that, of course, is the birth of Christ, born in humble surroundings to a very common and ordinary family. If that’s the way God works, then there’s hope that God can do something in and through my life as well.

As we enter into the Advent Season, we are reminded that Advent is about hope. Not a “wishful thinking” hope, and not just a hope that there will be less pain and suffering (although that too is a part of it), but hope that our existence has value and meaning beyond our present experiences and circumstances. Our hope is in the fact that God has taken an interest in humanity. The evidence of that interest is the fact that Jesus came to earth. He could have come in His glory, but He came as a baby. He was tempted in every way as we are, but remained without sin. His life became a message of hope. Hope that there is more to life than tall buildings, faster computers or exotic vacations.

Sue Monk Kidd, in one of her books, recalls her youth and how she would prepare for Christmas. In early December, she would sit by the wooden nativity set clustered under their Christmas tree and think over the last year of her life. She would think deeply about Christmas and the coming of Jesus. She remembers, one time, visiting a monastery. It was a couple of weeks before Christmas. As she passed a monk walking outside, she greeted him with, “Merry Christmas.” The monk’s response caught her off guard a bit. “May Christ be born in you,” he replied.

Life is more than our circumstances. It is God with us and in us. That’s the hope of Advent.

Pastor Norman