REFLECTIONS

Hope

Anthony walked through the gate, paused, and looked around. Before him trees stood tall, colorful plants decorated the ground, and unfiltered light allowed a rainbow to radiate God’s presence. While the gate closed behind him, Anthony turned and gazed upon the stone-grey walls that had isolated him from the outside world for eighteen years. Then he turned away from those prison walls a free man. Hope was true. His suffering over.

He watched people scurry about their daily activities and automobiles crowd the streets. The smell of home cooked meals filled the air and sounds of simply being alive rang in his ears. It had been a long time since he had been a part of any of it.

Behind him at last were questions an unjustly convicted man would ask—questions that might have challenged his hope. But he answered them, “I never lost hope, because once you lose hope, you’re a dead man walking, I wasn’t going to lie down and die. I knew that one day [I would be found innocent]—I just didn’t know which day.”

Anthony was sure of what he hoped for—sure he would be found innocent and set free. A few thousand years before Job was sure of what he hoped for too. He was stripped of his possessions, his friends, and his family; and he suffered a painful and debilitating disease that isolated him from everyone he knew and loved. Yet even as his life crumbled away, he said of God, “though he slay me, yet will I hope in him;” (Job 13:15)

True hope resides in faith in the Lord. Hope is the certainty that He will draw near, relieve pain, and offer his peace. But as certain as hope may be, relief may not come in the manner imagined. Neither will the day be known.

For Anthony it took eighteen years. Sometimes it takes a lifetime. But hope does not disappoint. (Romans 5:5) Our Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth, remains faithful forever.

We can count on it.

“You are the light of the world.”

Richard +www.reflectingthesavior.org

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