Can you see hope? Last Monday, 27 days after the first day of spring, I glanced out my window and saw really big snowflakes. The snow started coming down so hard that I could barely see flowers on the trees. And then I noticed something even crazier, an icicle in the middle of April! I couldn’t believe my eyes. Was there any hope?
Thankfully, the bright purple azaleas a few feet past the icicle snapped me back to my senses. Summer was surely on its way; winter would surely end.
I started this winter out strong, believing I could handle it. I purchased some cute winter outfits and armed myself with my pink coat, electric blanket, sidewalk salt and window de-icer.
I did pretty well for the first couple of months, but by the middle of February, I had to fight harder. I brought in the coconut scented lotion, indulged in tropical fruit, sat bright colored flowers in my window sill and melted wax cubes that smelled like an ocean breeze.
I fought with all I had, but the day came when I felt like I could take no more. I didn’t want to wear multiple layers of clothes. I didn’t want to go outside. I didn’t want to get out of bed. I didn’t want to do ANYTHING. Winter was lasting a really long time, and I started longing for the sunshine more than ever.
The day finally came when I could go outside without a heavy coat! However, the next day was bitter cold again. The back and forth cycle began. The sunshine burst through one day, but clouds drifted back the next. A dandelion popped up but was followed by frost. The daffodils bloomed, but then snow covered them up.
Sandals, boots, hope, despair…. That’s the battle that winter brings. I can get caught up dwelling on the cold and dreary weather or I can keep my thoughts on what lies ahead. I can fix my eyes on the icicles, or I can focus on the azaleas in the distance.
Isn’t that how life is? Things are going great, and then we hit difficult season. Life gets better, but then more trials develop. Life can become an emotional roller coaster as we transition through its seasons.
Sometimes we find ourselves in a burdensome season that just won’t go away. Problem after problem arises, and the load gets harder and harder to bear. We might even encounter a season that we know is only going to get worse until our life on earth is over.
In these seasons of distress and despair, we have a choice. We can either give in to hopelessness or we can search for hope and hold on to the end.
“How can you have hope when one thing keeps happening after the next?” or “How can you have hope if you know this pain will continue until you die?” you might ask. Let me tell you about the hope I possess. I have been through some extremely difficult seasons. In fact, my life right now is not trouble-free, and I am certain that I have seasons in my future that will be even more difficult than anything I have encountered to this day. Yet whatever lies ahead, I will continue to do what I have been doing thus far.
Instead of being swallowed up by despair and grief, I will put on the full armor of God so I can stand against the devil’s schemes. I will fight with the word of God and prayer. I will seek the Lord with all my heart, my soul, my mind and my strength. For whatever I must walk through, I know that God will walk through it with me.
Whatever pain I endure whether physical, mental or emotional, I will remember that I am more than flesh and bones. I am a soul who has entrusted my life to the One who created my inmost being. I will hold on to the hope that no matter what trouble lies ahead, something far greater than I could ever imagine is off in the distance.
Someday, when my heart stops beating and I take my last breath, my God will take me home with him, where there will be no more mourning or crying or pain. I will be made perfectly whole and will spend eternity with a loving, holy, perfect God in a perfect place.
So, my question to you is this, “Can you see hope? Can you see past the struggles that you are facing and the difficult days that lie ahead?” This hope I speak of is found in only one place. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to Father except through him. Our sin has separated us from God, but Jesus paid the price for all of our sins. Do you know Jesus, and have you entrusted your life to him? God wants each of us to accept this gift of forgiveness and return to him. Ask God to forgive you for going your way instead of his. He will wash you clean with the blood of Jesus, fill you with the Holy Spirit and transform you to be more like him. Lay down your life today and start living for him. He will fill you with peace and hope that lasts for an eternity.