In Bethlehem: “A re-igniting of hope is how the Mayor of Bethlehem Maher Nicola Canawati described this week’s lighting of the Manger Square Christmas tree. The tree wasn’t lit in 2023 and 2024 in respect of the Gaza conflict and the loss of so many lives. But the Mayor said this week that he hoped the world would see, with the lighting of the Bethlehem tree, that most Palestinians yearned for peace and life free from war.

In Ukraine: Kyiv resident Anna told international media this week that it was hard to think about celebrating Christmas as Putin’s bombs still dropped across the country. “But I will light Christmas candles and hold to hope. Sometimes I feel like my hope is slipping, but I hold on. I pray that next Christmas we can truly celebrate in peace.”

In the US – many face a dire Christmas with growing homelessness, Trump Administration food cuts and cost of living pressures. Many churches are responding with creativity, generosity and compassion, including one who will turn their Christmas tree into blankets for local people sleeping rough.

And on the home front, with 1 in 7 Australians living beyond the poverty line, Sydney woman Kirrilee tells local media this week what a difference the care and support of others, like the Salvos, make at Christmas time. “Things are hard but knowing you are not on your own gives me hope. I can keep going.”

Martin Luther King Jnr said: “If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all.”

We all need hope – real hope, Christmas hope!

Two millennia ago, “hope” breaks into a hurting world. God comes to us to remind us that we are never bereft of substantive, sustaining hope, anchored in God’s love. This Christmas – we have the opportunity to experience anew the hope of the season. The hope of Christ breaking afresh into the messiness and brokenness of our world and lives. And we have the opportunity to live as hope-bearers, to come alongside others with compassion, acceptance, generosity, advocacy, peace, a listening ear, practical support and care.

“The thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices!”