Admiral James Stockdale was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. He was the highest-ranking United States military officer in the notorious “Hanoi Hilton” prisoner of war camp. For eight years, from 1965 until 1973, he had none of the rights of a prisoner of war and never knew when, or if, he would be set free. He was cruelly tortured over twenty times and walked the rest of his life with a limp. He never fully recovered from the brutal torture he suffered.

How did he endure? How did he keep up hope for eight years? Jim Stockdale has said, “I never lost faith in the end of the story. I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade.”

You know, in some respects, that’s similar to the response of the virgin Mary. When the angel told her that she would be the mother of God’s own son, she didn’t understand exactly what was happening to her, but she didn’t lose faith in the end of the story. She told the angel, “May it be to me as you have said.”

And that’s what Christmas is all about – not losing hope. As Christians, we are absolutely convinced that Jesus Christ was sent from God to be the Savior of the world and to give us eternal life. And God will do what he promised!