When we use the word “hope” today, most of the time we’re wishing something will or won’t happen. I hope I didn’t leave the oven on, I hope I feel better tomorrow, I hope it doesn’t rain this weekend. Or perhaps more seriously, I hope my kids are healthy, I hope I get that job, or I hope my partner is happy. These are all good things to hope for of course, and we get frustrated, angry, or sad when these hopes are not realised, but they’re not quite the same thing we mean when we speak of Christian hope.

Every Sunday in church we recite one of the creeds, the statements of belief, that the church has recited for almost 2,000 years. At the end of one of those, the Nicene creed, we say together, “we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.”

It might seem a cliche to talk about a Christian belief in life after death, of course we believe that. But because Christ was resurrected, we look ahead to our own resurrection, and the resurrection of those we love, and the life of the world to come, where we might be made whole again. Over the last 2,000yrs Christians have consistently believed that this life is not all there is. And that resurrected life, where there will be no more tears, no more suffering, no injustice, no more pain; that is what we hope for.

But Christian hope is not primarily about the what, but the who. Christian hope is hope in a person, in Jesus Christ himself. Christian hope is hope in a God who loves us and cares for us. A God who can give beauty for ashes, joy instead of mourning, praise instead of despair. A God who himself was resurrected from the dead. Christian hope is hope in a God who does not let us down.

May you find your hope in one who will never disappoint, in Christ himself.