Hope...
There are several situations around me right now that keep
hammering home this idea of hope, of the need of an anchor mooring us to truths
about God that are sometimes hard to believe in.
My daughter just suffered the miscarriage of their first child.
So very early on in the pregnancy, but a great loss and disappointment
nonetheless. The sadness and sense of loss is still very great.
A dear friend is suffering an aggressive form of cancer. Although
everyone is still believing for a miracle (and truly the fact that he is still
alive is a miracle itself), he is only 24 years old and newly married. A
beautiful life ahead. Dashed hopes. Grieving over lost years.
And just yesterday, I heard about another sad, sad story of
loss. Some young friends suffered the 20-week stillbirth of a longed-for child,
after four 1st trimester miscarriages.
Not fair. It’s just not fair. Life is so damned hard.
The pain of this life on earth and our sheer dissatisfaction
with it points us to eternity. This truth alone is reason enough to believe
that there has got to be more. That there is a God. That there is a higher
power that will set everything right one day.
Our God-given aversion
to hopelessness is proof that He exists and has set eternity in our hearts.
I have also seen longings fulfilled lately that remind me
that although life is incredibly painful sometimes, God gives us glimpses into
Heaven. Tokens of His beauty and grandeur that comfort us when things are
really tough. Miracles great and small. God is in each one. The fact that the
sun came up today and there is air to breath and food to eat…these are the
everyday gifts of God that if we see them that way, are reminders of His great
care for us.
God is good. This is my hope, my anchor. Like the function
of a real boat’s anchor, it is under water, where no one can see, parked firmly
on solid ground deep beneath the waves and wind. It holds the vessel in place
while the wind buffets it about, beats it up, tosses it around. Yet, the boat
holds steady. I am that boat. My anchor is my hope in a God that is supremely
good and loving. When life tosses me about and beats me up, I go back to that
buried truth and hold on for dear life.
Consider these words from Romans 8:18-25 (The Message): “That’s why I don’t think there’s any comparison
between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what’s coming next.
Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until
both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same
moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation
deepens. All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times
of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it’s not only around
us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within.
We’re also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are
yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any
more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting.
We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the
larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.”
We are enlarged in
the waiting.
