Hope

When someone says “good news” only one thought comes to mind; Hope.  The scarcest commodity is hope.  The most priceless gift we can give another is Hope.  Hope defines communities which sustain, nurture, and shape our lives.  Hope is a gift directly from God.  We may squander hope but it returns again and again as we open ourselves.  We fight over many things, yet ironically everything revolves around hope, a lack of it, or the fear of it.
 
The world is full of disasters, pain, and suffering.  Without comment on the source of these forces in your life and mine, I find a single response which answers all the negatives.  This response is Hope.  No matter how bad things are.  Even when I read the forecast, past and present, how “the River Nile will dry up, the riverbed baked dry in the sun.  The canals will become stagnant and stink, every stream touching the Nile dry up.  River vegetation will rot away the banks of the Nile-baked clay, the riverbed hard and smooth, river grasses dried up and gone with the wind.  Fishermen will complain that the fishing's been ruined.  Textile workers will be out of work, all weavers and workers in linen and cotton and wool Dispirited, depressed in their forced idleness—everyone who works for a living, jobless.”  (Isaiah 19.5-10)  I know there is more to the story.  We have Hope, even when we do know realize it is within.
 
I find myself sitting in the sun, enjoying the warmth of a new day.  There is much I long for; the knowing love and warmth from the woman closest to my heart, the love of daughters still in the spring of life, and the warm banter of good friends.  I sit alone yet I find myself filled with hope.  Love has accompanied me on my journey.  I see God’s hand at work – in the lives of those I care deeply about.  The world thirsts for the knowledge we hold.  We can share – giving and receiving God’s Hope.  This is living.  Today everything is possible.