Long ago and far away there lived a people who knew lots of troubles. They lived in a good and prosperous land. Many other far stronger nations wanted to own this land because of its strategic location for trade and security. Alas, these troubled people were constantly attacked, pillaged, conquered, and carted off into exile by one stronger nation after another. The people knew fear, anger, separation from familiar places, loss of family, and on the list of crises went. How could they possibly go on living? How could they possibly maintain any sense of hope in the face of such violence and loss? Unfortunately, they did slip from time to time into the abyss of depression and anxiety and doubting God’s power to deliver. Fortunately, though, the same God whom many doubted had provided them with leaders who constantly reminded them of God’s faithfulness and love. They reminded them with words like these:

Lord, you have been our help, generation after generation. Before the mountains were born, before you birthed the earth and the inhabited world— from forever in the past to forever in the future, you are God. (Psalm 90:1-2, CEB)

Words like those didn’t magically and forever restore the people’s trust in God. Constant reminders from their leaders in words like these did, however, enable them to keep coming home to God in the midst of loss, tragedy, danger, and complicated times.

Fast forward to today.

There are people all across this fragile globe of ours who are afraid and uncertain on a regular basis. Violence and war abound. Hatred is a frequent a visitor in our lives through the news, as well as through our experiences and those of others. It is a monumental challenge to live lives of forgiveness. Like those people long ago and far away we, too, wonder from time to time where God is in all of this. We wonder how it is possible to live as a people of hope and grace in such a dangerous world. To us come the same kind of reminders as our distant ancestors in the faith heard. Reminders like:

Our God, our help in ages past,
our hope for years to come,
be thou our guard while life shall last,
and our eternal home.
(“Our God, Our Help in Ages Past,” Hymn 687, Glory to God)

Like those ancient words of the Psalmist, words like these do not magically restore our equilibrium and trust. Constant reminder of the God about whom they speak, however, can allow us to keep returning home to a God of love and protection.

In the end that is one of the most poignant meanings of Advent: reminding ourselves of the God who delivered in the past and whose deliverance we continue to celebrate and await daily. We share dangerous and crisis-ridden times with our long ago forerunners in the faith. We also know the fear, doubt, and anxiety that often accompany times like this. This Advent Season make time to frequently remind yourself of the God whose love and protection has never let us go and never will. We may just find ourselves renewing our kinship with those ancestors in the faith who knew the struggles of finding hope and trust in their dangerous world long ago and far away as we do from time to time in ours. Renewing those family ties will be yet another blessed reminder for us of the timelessness of God’s care and protection.