A Bygone Era; a Message of Hope

The Making of "Hope for Everyone"

The advent of the radio brought forth a new era of information sharing and communication to the masses. By the mid 1930s, over 60% of American homes featured this highly decorative and functional piece of electronic furniture. In the era of the depression, President Roosevelt seized upon this up-and-coming technology by periodically broadcasting an address to living rooms across the nation, discussing the troubles facing the nation - economic, agricultural, geopolitical. With the world seemingly in disarray, the hope of a new dawn was found for many in a self-assured voice carried via electromagnetic waves around the country.

Roughly 400 years before the advent of Christ, God the Father provided a message through a prophecy.

"And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming..."

Hope for the long awaited deliverance of God's people was rekindled. The new covenant promised in the days of Jeremiah - the plans for God's people to prosper and not to perish - was coming. This long-awaited promise broadcast by the prophet Malachi, as is often the case, is contained within a rebuke. The only hope for the world would be found in this messenger of the covenant. And so, they waited. Their spirits wearied from waiting and they would continue to turn away from the God who had always fulfilled His promises.

For 400 years, God's people were left in silence. Can you imagine the ache of their longing?

When my grandparents married, my Granddad was a repairman. He made a living fixing clocks and radios. Today, those items symbols of time and a bygone era of a seemingly no longer useful medium of communication. But in His day, the radio offered hope to households struggling with their ever-changing realities. He would go on to retire as a linesman for the regional power company, but would continue to repair radios, clocks and eventually televisions. I have vague memories as a kid of my grandfather occasionally disappearing into his workshop behind the house. I have always held a certain curiosity for those items.

It was, in fact, at my grandparents house where I was introduced to a video camera for the first time by my grandfather's brother shortly before my grandfather passed away. We plugged the camera directly into an old tube tv, and watched ourselves wave and make faces towards the camera - as one does. It's a fond memory, but one that I did not ascribe any particular weight to until recently. My curiosity was sparked in a new medium - video - that would be made more accessible to the masses as I grew - much like my grandfather's passion for radio.

When I was approached with a title to my church's Christmas worship special, "Hope for everyone," I considered the hope and comfort afforded to God's people by the prophets, as promises of a new reality and an eternal deliverance, and the continued reality that they could not be justified by their own attempted or perceived righteousness. Just as Americans in the 1930s turned to their radios to be encouraged by FDR's fireside chats, but weighed the reality that as certain successes were experienced at home, more trouble was brewing abroad.

It is only by faith in the coming Messiah that our hearts are made clean, and that our longings are met, and our hope is fulfilled. In times of struggle or grieving, heartache or emptiness, we're tempted to believe that we are all alone - like the broadcast had ended. It's in those moments in which God reveals His character towards us by fulfilling His promise, tuning our hearts to receive the transmission of the hope of salvation through Jesus.

My grandmother graciously and excitedly allowed us to shoot in a place that seemed remarkably frozen in time. My grandfather had passed 20 years prior to this project, but his workshop had remained mostly unchanged. Many of the tools and components that he used to repair radios were still sitting on his workbench - almost as if they were, waiting there for this project.

My grandmother passed away in 2022. The house - and workshop - has since been sold. I took with me as much of his radio tools and components as I reasonably could fit in my garage, the memories of two people who have had profound impact on my life, and the spark of curiosity that ignited a passion to share the hope of the gospel through film.