HOPE.  The Second Sunday of Advent is all about HOPE....hope is not wishful thinking.  It does not mean to "wish" for something out of the ordinary to happen.  HOPE in Scripture, and in many other languages, is the same word as "WAIT"  You "wait" with "hope".  Hope is therefore knowing for certainty what is going to happen.  To have hope is to await the completion of what you know and believe is true.  For instance, Christ will return.  We wait in hope....not that He returns, because He definitely will.  We wait in Hope, anticipating that return.  But what if loss and heartache grip us in the midst of that hope.  What are the chances we might be embittered and broken in this world...how then do we have and hold on to hope?  Listen in!