Today we start the advent journey toward Christmas.  Our first thematic stop is hope.  We consider the faithfulness of God in history, his coming to us in Jesus, and reclaim a bold hope for the future.  We proclaim our hope that God will come again and bring his redemptive work to its culmination.  That day is not yet, but even now God comes.  This too is part of our hope.  We hope not only for God's coming again at the close of history, but for God's coming into our hearts and lives here and now.  As a people of hope, we prepare him room.