Shoveling out from last weekend’s snow storm at my driveway reminds me of Christmas is coming soon. My all-time favorite song, sung by Bing Crosby, called “White Christmas” came to my mind. In its lyrics, there is a stanza like this:
I’m dreaming of a white Christmas
With every Christmas card I write
May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmases be white
For those of us who are living in Northeastern region, “white Christmas” seems to be a norm, though sometimes we may not have it right on the Christmas day. For those of you who are living in the West coast or South, your experience of a white Christmas may be quite different. Before I came to the Northeast, I used to live in a tropical area and therefore, snow in winter is an impossible event unless it is in higher mountain. Consequently, to dream a white Christmas in winter is like an impossible dream.
Last Friday night in our small group meeting, we were asked to share our dreams in our youth. Some of us shared that they had dreamed to enter certain professions but later on, changed their mind. My experience is we can have many dreams in our journey of life but they oftentimes do not come true! They are more like “wishful thinking” or impossible dreams.
In contrasting to our impossible dreams, Bible gave us an example of how Simeon and Anna realize their dream – witnessing the birth of Jesus (Luke 2:25-38). From reading the Scriptures, we see that Simeon and Anna had dreamed that they can see “the consolation of Israel以色列的安慰者”; “God’s salvation神的救恩”; “the Lord’s Messiah主所立的基督”; “a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel是照亮外邦人的光，又是你民以色列的榮耀”. At the first glance, we may think their dream is an impossible dream since they had been waiting for a long time as it seems to be forever. To them, however, is totally opposite – they have the confidence because it had been revealed to them by the Holy Spirit. This tells us that their dream is truly a “hope” that is assured by God instead of just a human “wishful thinking”. Their impossible dream becomes possible because it was a God’s promise reveled to them.
From Simeon and Anna’s experience, there are a few things worthy of mention, in particular their attitudes toward God. They have never dreamed of power and violence, instead, they consider life as perseverance in prayer and alert, waiting patiently for the coming of God’s promise – the consolation of Israel. Simeon has been a person of righteous and devout and Anna is a widow for many years. Anna has suffered from many difficulties throughout her life as a widow. However, she has never lost hope and stayed in the slump of despair. She prayed and worshiped God incessantly. Their witness of life teaches us how to realize an impossible dream – based on God’s promise.
My dear brothers and sisters, we may have many personal aspirations, dreams in our life journey, but do we have a dream of God’s promise? In this Christmas season, let’s remember that “Jesus is the reason for this season!” All our dreams have to base on Him in order to come true!
Disclaimer: The sharing is pure from my personal view; therefore, please don’t take it to be absolute. Thanks