Placing Hope

When I was a little girl, there was a place at the park where a shelter had been built to overlook a forested valley. If I stood very quietly with bird seed on my hands, chickadees and sparrows would use my palms as their dinner spot. Tiny birds with bright eyes and bold looks would gobble down the seeds and trust me to serve them properly without jumping up and down in delight. In return, their presence thrilled me as I could feel them walking about, tickling my palms and giving me the opportunity to see the details that are a mere blur in flight.

Hope seems to me to be something like those birds. Deceptively fragile, incredibly detailed and something precious to be entrusted with; I try to form it as an image in my mind. But, it is not enough to hope for anything, or it will turn to something small and broken before my eyes. I hope for health, a car that runs, to do my job well, to have happiness and many other things. But, these are small and easily overturned hopes.  Health fades, cars break down, there are good days and bad days in anyone’s job, happiness is not guaranteed. If I hope in these things, I am left hopeless.

A friend wrote about the bravery of choosing to hope in the Creator of hope recently. It seems that in a way, hopelessness may be the easier out because it hedges our bets. Her words encouraged me to continue to bravely continue to seek for the hope that comes with Christ. Hope that is not based on circumstances or culture, media or other people. It is hope that stems from what is true and good and right; from Jesus – the creator of hope.  

“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39

My hope is in Jesus. I don’t think it could be better placed. 

Buckets of Refreshing

Overall, this summer has been extremely pleasant for someone who is not a fan of high heat.  Cool days and cooler nights have come to a temporary end as the heat arrived and seems to want to stay.  My plants that seemed refreshed and able to handle the heat this morning were bowed down and droopy by this afternoon.  The soil seemed as if the moisture was evaporated out at such a rate that what was okay this morning was completely dry by evening.  Grabbing the bucket and filling it up multiple times from the garden hose, plants were watered slowly.  Too fast and the water just rolls off.  Slowly, repetitively, water needs to be added, allowing it to sink in.  One time watered, two time watered, and slowly I watched the water sink in.  After an evening and night to soak in the new water, tomorrow the plants will be recharged.  Of course, that is water for one day.  Tomorrow evening, in this heat, water will also be needed again.

I feel like these plants sometimes.  The heat of a busy day arrives and what started out as refreshed ends as drooped and bowed to the sun.  I can feel dried out, over extended and badly in need of refreshing.  In fact, I’ve been feeling that way in the last few months off and on.  Wonderful opportunities to be involved in so many different projects and activities, doing great things to serve – things I want to do.  But, without refreshing I will be as dry as that dirt.  Yet, I have noticed that as refreshing comes from the Lord, and it does come, it comes like the water from the bucket – a little at a time.  It came in watching fawns for some time this afternoon.  It came from an unexpected encounter waving to a friend during an afternoon.  It came from seeing a shooting star, a hummingbird, and a friend’s smile.  A child’s exuberant and unencumbered praise of Christ, the time in prayer, and the words of the Bible all come like cool water and refresh my spirit. 

Yes, I do bow with the heat and the dryness that life can bring, just with the schedule of things I love to do.  And yet, I am continuing to find each day, buckets slowly added to bring refreshing.  

Wash It Away

A sudden rain came down a few days ago, that for all its brevity could be called a gully washer.  I was inside, and though I paused to admire the actual sheeting of rain that blocked my view to see across the street, I did not really think much about the outside effects.  Later that day, I walked to my car to head home.  The rain had stopped and it was nicely cool and fresh outside.  I noticed that there were brown lines around cars, where the rain had washed cars and removed the layers of dirt.  Outlines now existed around cars, and in parking spots where cars were once parked.  My car shined quite nicely in the sun, looking clean and sparkly.  The remnants the rain left were not on my car, but in a car sized dirt outline

As I got in the car, and headed home, it struck me that the car could not wash itself.  There had to be an outside source to remove the dirt.  In much the same way, the sins that accumulate on, around, and in me are also something I cannot remove.  Jesus, in much the same way, performed an act that worked like that gully washer.  He shed his blood and died for my sins, in essence removing them by the sacrifice of love.  What left was a bright and shiny forgiveness of my sins and your sins in the person of me and other followers of Christ, and that human size dirt outline you see there on the ground, that is the sin that is no longer mine to pick-up. 

Why? That is one of my favorite questions.  I think it is important to understand why things happen or don’t happen certain ways.  Why would a perfect God do something to even bother with the messiness of people?  Love.  God loves us so much that He gave us his one and only Son.  We in turn, if we believe in him, we are given eternal life.  Because, the Son (Jesus) did not come to condemn the messy structure we call humanity, but to save us instead.  I accepted that Love.  I hope you do too.