When I read this passage, I always see Nellie Forbush. Remember her? She is the "cock-eyed optimist" from Rogers and Hammerstein's classic musical "South Pacific." She sings the exuberant song of Advent: 

"I'm stuck like a dope with a thing called hope
And I can't get it out of my heart!
Not this heart."
Can't you just see her eager response to the call of the Old Testament Prophet Zechariah: 
"Rejoice greatly, daughters of Zion
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem
Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope." -Zechariah 9: 9-14 

This joyful image comes from a difficult and turbulent time in the history of Israel, the sixth century BC. After 70 years of Babylonian captivity, the people returned to the land to find it despoiled, depleted with destruction everywhere. The first half of Z…