Hope

I was listening to a local radio show this morning and they were talking about the hope we have in Christ as Christ followers.  It got me thinking that hope can come in many forms.  We say we have "hopes and dreams" for our future, our kids say they "hope" they made a good grade on their test, we may "hope" our team wins their game this Saturday.  I have prayed hoping God will heal our girl this side of heaven.  Even though the answer to that prayer has been "no" so far, I still have hope...our family still has hope.  It's not the kind of hope that can be taken away because of hard circumstances or a difficult diagnosis.  It's not the kind of hope that diminishes because our hearts are hurting.  It's not the kind of hope that we abandon because we don't get our way.  It's the hope we have in our Savior.  It's the promise we have as Christ followers that this earthly life is not all there is, because of what Jesus did on the cross for our sin we are able to have a relationship with our Creator.  

I sat across the lunch table from a friend last week.  She is the mother of a special needs child who is now in heaven. With tears in her eyes and a huge smile on her face she talked about her son...he's not in pain anymore, he's healed and she knows with absolute certainty that she will see him again one day...that's hope!  She beams when she talks about him.  She hurts, yes, but she has hope.  

It is not a hope that is tied to earthly wants and desires, no matter how noble or selfless those wants and desires may appear to be.  How could I not hope that Sophie Kate is healed one day?  As her mother it is one of my deepest desires, but that is not where my joy and my happiness lie, if that were the case I would have never been able to smile again.  It is the hope we have in Christ, in His promise...I belong to Him and can never be taken out of His hand.  I was never promised a life without difficulty, life without trials and hard times, but I have been promised that God will never leave me and that He will always go before me and make a way.  I have been promised that one day I will be with Him in paradise for eternity and one day my prayers will be answered because SK will be healed either here on earth or in eternity.

Romans 8:24-25 "For in this hope we were saved.  But hope that is seen is no hope at all.  Who hopes for what they already have?  But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently."