It’ almost the end of January, of 2010! What hope and excitement the year began with! A New Year always does! There’s something about the newness of an entire calendar year that evokes a good feeling in the hearts of us all… fresh, clean and untainted, straight from the hand of God, like a blank page awaiting what must be marked on it , some moments erasable, some etched permanently. Some beautiful ‘Kodak Moments’ and some of heavy-laden sorrow… Yet we humans are inherently built to thrive on hope. The acclaimed poet Alexander Pope remarked “Hope springs eternal in the human breast!” It never dies! No matter what has transpired in our lives, given the opportunity, we will hope again! We may have had the worst imaginable experiences in the year just gone by, but that doesn’t deter us from believing for better in the days to come! Who says Man is not resilient? Optimistic? And an incorrigible dreamer at heart! We may fall, but we are quick to shake off the dust and rise up again like the Phoenix of folklore. And that, precisely, is the reason that a New Year has a way of spreading bonhomie and cheer all around.
And, what’s more, hope is exceedingly pleasing to the eyes of God. When He regards a child that has pinned his hopes on Him, the Scripture says that nothing pleases Him more . Rom 4:18 declares , “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations…”
When we hope, we align ourselves with Heaven’s plans that are for our good and not for our destruction, especially when we put our trust in God! While hope is its own reward, it also carries one- the fulfillment of our dreams!
We’ve all been disappointed in people, but that slight, silken thread of hope is preserved by God Himself, that it we may use it to hold on to Him.
The most marvelous hope of all to me, though, is the one we have of living with Christ beyond death! What an awesome hope! It’s a hope we can appreciate even more in the face of the death of a loved one. The hope of meeting up with dear ones gone on before us. Take this out of the equation of Life, and I reckon, most of Life would be reduced to a meaningless futility of striving that leads nowhere!
I can say “Amen! ” to St. Paul who affirms in Acts24:15, “I have the same hope in God…, that there will be a resurrection of both, the righteous and the wicked.”
I leave you with this wonderful scriptural blessing from Rom 15:13 “ May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”