As we prepare to enter the Advent season, our hearts fill with anticipation. In just a few weeks we will celebrate Messiah’s birth, remembering the day when hope entered the world, forever changing the course of human history.
With the gift of hindsight, we look back on that first Christmas night through the lens of the gospel narratives, which frame the nativity in light of Old Testament prophecy. The promise to Mary, the lineage of Joseph, the census in Bethlehem, the heavenly star and the exodus to Egypt. These all find their place in a divine plan crafted before the beginning of time. Zooming out further, we draw a line from the manger to the cross and, ultimately, to the empty tomb, the fulfillment of Advent’s hopeful story.
Oriented toward a sure hope to come, Advent pulls us forward, deeper and deeper into the mystery of the incarnation. We can celebrate now because we know the end of the story.
Hope Deferred
Many of our China stories have a similar anticipatory quality. Pointing toward hoped-for outcomes—perhaps greater freedom for Chinese Christians or a society transformed by the gospel—these narratives carry us forward in the confidence that someday things will be different. China will be changed.
Yet as we come to the end of another year, with Chinese Christians facing even greater restrictions and Chinese society spiraling downward into hopelessness, these stories appear to ring hollow. The hoped-for outcomes seem as far off as ever.
Proverbs 13:12 says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick…”
Do we need new stories? Or do we, perhaps, have a misplaced hope?
Whatever our stories may promise, our hope for China is more than looking forward to an ideal future. It is not tied to what we believe ought to happen; it is rooted in the conviction that God is at work, often in ways we cannot understand. As we embrace the mystery of the incarnation, so we embrace the mystery of how Christ is revealed in our lives and in the lives of those we love.
Hope that Does Not Disappoint
Romans 5:3-4 speaks of the hope that emanates from character, which is formed through endurance, which is produced by suffering. The preceding verse defines this hope as hope in the glory of God. If our hope is for God to work in a certain way to bring about a set of defined outcomes in China, we will likely be disappointed. Yet the hope spoken of here does not disappoint. It does not put us to shame. Our anticipation springs not from being confident about how things will turn out, but from the expectation that we will experience God’s transforming love here and now, poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, as he is glorified in ways we could never anticipate.
This passage also reminds us that the pathway to hope passes through suffering, a lesson lived out in the lives of countless Chinese Christians who have learned to walk the pathway of the cross. We rejoice, not because there is anything inherently life-giving about the suffering we endure. Suffering is not pleasant. We do not suffer for suffering’s sake.
Rather, we rejoice in the anticipation of hope. We rejoice, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance, character. We rejoice in the confidence that, as we are formed into the image of Christ, God will be glorified. The story that emerges is not about a changed China, but about changed people, refined through suffering, transformed by love, living in the hope of the glory of God. For those who serve, it is not just a matter of pursuing what we believe God wants to do in and through China, but, more importantly, leaning into the formative work he is doing in us.
The anticipation of Advent points us forward to the joyous celebration of a hope that has been realized. For those seeking God’s glory in China, our anticipation is firmly rooted in that eternal hope.
Without the benefit of hindsight, however, the events of the Nativity by themselves paint an intriguing yet inconclusive picture. Only by looking back at God’s unfolding plan can we begin to understand the meaning of those disparate events.
God in his mercy may give us glimpses of how what we perceived as hope deferred has actually served to advance his purposes in China. But only as future generations look back in hindsight will the whole story begin to come into view. For now, we live in anticipation of Christ’s ongoing work in our lives and in his church, forming us into people of hope.
