My hope is in you Lord

It's Thursday. It's the day after Christmas. My mind should be totally focused on all of the things I'm thankful for. And it is, but it's stuck on something else as well. Something I just can't shake.

Hope.

Actually, the lack of hope.

How do people live without hope?

Seriously. I've spent a lot of time the past several days just pondering this thought and I just can't imagine.

"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" Romans 15:13

Last Sunday I woke up to a text message that said "Please pray". I knew what the situation had been earlier in the weekend. I knew exactly what my dear friend wanted me to pray for now. I passed the message on to other friends I knew would also pray for this precious woman and her family. I didn't know the exact circumstances of the moment but I knew God did. I knew He knew exactly what their requests were.

A short time later I got word that this request had not been answered in the way they had hoped. My friends mother in law passed away very suddenly Sunday morning only 3 days before Christmas. My heart broke for all of them. I've felt the hurt of loss this year, but not quite like this. Fourteen years ago I lost my grandma on that very same day, 3 days before Christmas, but it wasn't like this. This loss came suddenly, unannounced, unsuspecting. 

"The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in Spirit" Psalm 34:18

This kind of loss scares me for selfish reasons too. It is all too real of a reminder that it could be any of us, at any moment. Not scary in the paranoid kind of  way, but in the, this life is real, God expects me to make every moment count kind of way. It scares me because am I doing that? Am I living that life? Am I thankful everyday that I have another chance to tell another person about the Savior who rescued me?  Am I not just thankful but am I doing something with this time? If I'm completely honest with myself the answer is no, most likely not like He wants me to. 

But still, I have this hope, I know who hope is. My friend, her mother in law knew hope, she is with Jesus. She gets to have Christmas every single day for all of eternity now. I know too that my friend, her husband, their family, they know hope and while I also know that things hurt more than they might be able to bear right now, they will hold tight to hope. I know no words I utter to them can ease their pain. But I know they know Jesus and Jesus will continue to bring them comfort. So I pray for them, and the entire family as they enter this new chapter. Because while life goes on, it's very different now. Something is missing, someone that can't be replaced. But that empty place in their hearts, that place can and will be filled with a peace that only Jesus can bring. 

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me, and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:11-13

So this is where my thoughts on hope started from. What really gets me are where my thoughts went to next. There are so many other terrible stories of loss scattered across the news this Christmas season. Loss of homes, loss of jobs, loss of children... Do these people know hope? Where will they seek their comfort? How can people live each day without this peace?  We might seek peace from many different outlets, we suffer losses from many things. These losses eventually are meant to help us to realize the only thing that is constant and true, the only thing that will continue to fill our hearts is Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.

"Therefore since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice, in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Romans 5:1-5

So thankful that my hope is in you Lord!

Where does your hope come from?