Advent Devotional by Angie Fuller

Romans 15:4-13

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (v. 13)

I’ll never forget watching my husband desperately try to save a tree during a fierce summer storm. We’d recently planted a redbud just beyond the front porch of our new home, and about four feet off the ground its trunk had grown into a “V” with two branches leading upward. This created a weak spot for the young tree, and David couldn’t just stand and watch as straight-line winds began to split the trunk. With the wind pressing him against one side of the tree, he held on for dear life to the branch breaking off the other side. (Kids, don’t try this. Hugging a tree during a thunderstorm is dangerous in multiple ways!) Afterward a tree expert suggested using a large screw to secure that “V” joint until it healed. The fix worked until a later storm – this one with twisting winds that David did NOT choose to experience outdoors – tore the branch and screw completely off. Another expert said if we were willing to have an empty space, we could cut off the whole trunk at ground level and see what happened. We followed their suggestion.

Then we waited and hoped.

Multiple shoots sprang up, and within a few years our young children were climbing the branches to hang birdfeeders and stow toy firefighters. Twenty years later that tree shades the entire corner of our home. Hope grew. Joy and peace followed.

Today’s passage is sprinkled with hope. Verse four describes hope found in the encouragement and teaching of Scripture, which has stood the test of time. Words from Isaiah quoted in verse 12, with the metaphor of a shoot springing from a stump, allude to Christ fulfilling prophecies, exceeding the hopes of the Israelites, and being One in whom even Gentiles put their hope. And the passage ends with a benediction that was easy for me to gloss over at first, but now I realize it’s a blessing with a call to action. Joy and peace come when I trust God, and they spring out of me and offer hope to others when I allow the Spirit to work through me.

Our redbud is dormant and leafless now, but there is hope in its veins. Spring is coming. May hope abound in our veins, too, when we make time and space for Scripture and the Spirit to work in us.

Angie Fuller