Looking at the national news as we head into the Christmas holidays, you'd have to search awhile to find stories of hope. Perhaps the least dreadful headline is that the nation is running out of candy canes, which will be disappointing for peppermint lovers but by no means a disaster. On the more serious side of things, COVID-19 is dominating the news just as it did in 2020 during this time.

I live in Columbus, Ohio, and the pandemic has been relentless in battling the Buckeye state. Recently, six health care facilities in Cleveland took out a Sunday ad in The Plain Dealer pleading for "help" due to being overwhelmed with COVID patients. Hospital staffs are stretched so thinly in northern Ohio that Gov. Mike DeWine has called in the state's National Guard. Elsewhere across the country, the tornados that have ripped through western Kentucky and southwest Florida have brought devastating loss and death, and my church congregation has spent the past two weeks praying for the victims who must now rebuild their lives. Through the prayers, I kept thinking that in the midst of such catastrophic destruction, all some people could do is cling to their faith, and like Job, fall to their knees and tell God, "I will maintain mine own ways before You."

Christmas this year, just like last year, has been very difficult for many, and it is quite evident that we all are enduring an ongoing, trying season. When I reflect on my childhood Christmases during the '70s, there seemed to still be a sense of overall joyfulness and not the engulfing despair we are seeing today. I had a Christmas for the ages in 1978 as a 9-year-old girl who still believed in Santa. That year, I received a piano, two bikes, four winter coats and a plethora of other toys I wanted with no idea that my mother, father and grandmothers had sacrificed and gone on an enormous shopping spree to make me happy. Living in the comfort of being a blessed kid who wanted for nothing, I did not know what was going on in the world, and 1978 was not a year without hardships. There was unrest in the Horn of Africa and continued conflict between Israel and the State of Palestine, but one uplifting story was the vaccine that led to the eradication of smallpox. Things weren't perfect in 1978, but it certainly did not have the feeling of prevailing anguish that 2021 has had.

One of the major spiritual precepts in the message of Christmas is hope, and we definitely need an everlasting hope as 2022 is merely days away. For all of the years that I have celebrated Christmas, I have heard lots of sermons on the hope that Jesus Christ brought into the world when He came to save us from the bondage of sin. I now understand that this hope is the foundation of a godly lifestyle that I must live daily, a foundation that is resilient and strong enough to weather any grueling obstacle or test I may face. A comforting Scripture of hope to meditate on with so many suffering during the holidays is Psalm 9:18, which is not widely read during Christmas church services. The New International Version (NIV) says, "But God will never forget the needy; the hope of the afflicted will never perish."

As I was viewing the images of the remains of destroyed houses and smashed cars piled upon debris after the tornado outbreak hit Dawson Springs, Kentucky, I came across a story of hope from nearby Mayfield, Kentucky, that demonstrates the promise of this verse. Two babies — a 3-month-old and a 15-month-old — survived in a bathtub that was torn from their grandmother's home during the violent storm. Their grandmother also survived, and this is one testimony of hope that not all was lost in the Kentucky tragedy.

So, this Christmas season, I want to encourage you to hold on to hope even if your circumstances appear bleak. I think we can all attest that the vicissitudes of life hit us in some way or another this year, but know that God remains faithful. He can meet your need no matter how great it is.

Dr. Jessica A. Johnson is a lecturer in the English department at Ohio State University's Lima campus. Email her at smojc.jj@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter: @JjSmojc. To find out more about Jessica Johnson and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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