“Hope delayed makes the heart sick; longing fulfilled is a tree of life.”(Proverbs 13:12 CEB)

It’s only the beginning of September and I’m already seeing promotions for the holiday season. Can you believe it? Before too long that overly ambitious neighbor will be plastering every square inch of his home’s exterior with red and green lights. You might even see one of those creative nativity scenes that feature Santa and his reindeer flying past the star of Bethlehem!

Imagine for a moment that Santa Claus didn’t have a reputation for handing out presents every December 25th. What if, instead, we told little girls and boys that if they were really good Santa would eventually give them a whole bunch of nice presents, but not yet.

“So when will we get the presents?,” the children would ask.

Imagine if we responded, “don’t worry, you’ll get your presents after you’re dead!”

The children would be heart sick. Luckily, their Christmas present hopes aren’t too delayed under the actual circumstances, but sometimes our hope in Jesus is a lot like my hypothetical Santa Claus scenario.

When we think of our hope as Christians, many of us think exclusively about going to heaven when we die and forget that many of the blessings of salvation are available to us right here and now.

“This hope doesn’t put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5 CEB).

The love of God has already been poured out into our hearts. We have already been made right with God because of the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. Access to the loving creator of the entire universe is available to us in this very moment!

So, while we rejoice in knowing that death is not the end of our story, let our hope be not delayed. Let us anchor our longings in pursuit of the kingdom of God and, like children about to rip into a pile of presents, trust that our hearts are just moments away from being filled up with the life-giving presence of the Lord.

Dear God, thank you for giving us a hope that will never disappoint us. Amen.