Hope is a thing with feathers

 (Emily Dickinson)

So I participated in this thing on Twitter this evening that was sort of between a Zoom and well, Twitter. A woman I follow named Sarah said "Let's hang out at 7 and light a candle." SHE MIGHT DO THIS EVERY WEEK!!

I took copious notes. 

Hope has bloody knuckles from fighting, hope is scrappy, wait, what? Hope is a crow not a sparrow? Crows collect shiny things and hop down the street after voices they recognize...a crow might be menacing but not with God's breath brought into it. Hope and crows are gritty. 

A man with a ripping Scottish accent stayed up really late to be with us, and he said "hope is not wishful thinking, like I hope we have lasagna for dinner." No, hope is not vague, it is assured, we can rely on it. 

Grittiness of hope. 

Folks waited and waited for a Savior. 

1 Cor. 13 (Love chapter) Glimpses, part not whole, LATER: receive it in full. 

Apparently this quote is a meme: "I always come limping into Advent looking for the Light and then I realize the Light came looking for me."

Then there was a riff on community using a boat as a metaphor--we are not tied to a rock, we are a whole crew (and then the metaphor fell apart and I know that preached and tickled my funny bone at the same time, my favorite kind of preach.)

At the end Sarah read Psalm 27 (go read it, so powerful), and Hector prayed us out. 

Wait for the Lord:
Be strong and take heart
And wait for the Lord (Ps. 27:14, NIV)