The numbers are dropping!  The decline in Covid19 cases in Ontario is hopeful.  I have heard this thought shared a few times over the past few days.  Dr. Anne-Marie Zajdlik says, “Do you see the path we are on?  I do. And it makes me very, very hopeful.”

On Monday, Martin Luther King Day was celebrated. Martin Luther said, “Everything that is done in the world is done with hope.” How true this is.  Life’s activities are sparked because we hope for a better tomorrow, for change, for discovery, for a more pleasant journey, for an answer to the questions that surround us. Hope for a vaccine contributed to record-setting speed in its development. I write daily with the hope that, through the Spirit, lives will be encouraged, faith will be inspired, and salvation through Jesus will be known.

Hope is defined using many words.  I have settled on ‘to expect with confidence’.  I realize that we can live with hope, but we can also have our hopes dashed. When hopes are dashed there is a loss of confidence.  This can lead to despair, sorrow, and even anguish.  You and I both know what it means to have our hopes dashed.

Today as I write I need to put a capital letter on the word hope.  Today, my hope, finds its wings when I spell it with a capital. Jesus is Hope. Jesus. Hope. I know that Hope (Jesus) does not disappoint and will never be taken away. Because Jesus is Hope, and I have life in Jesus, I am alive with hope. Jeremiah said, “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence” (Jeremiah 17:7).

The Bible tells us that through Jesus we have been given new birth into a living hope. I like the adjective ‘living’. Paraphrased with a language that is easily understood, we read of this described hope. “What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you’ll have it all—life healed and whole.”

May we continue to rest in our companion Hope, as we journey forward in life. Today may you experience true hope as you walk with Jesus. Let us sing and rest in the first verse of this beautiful song.

#861 In Christ Alone

In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My comforter, my all in all
Here in the love of Christ I stand.

Author of hope, you give and are our hope. Thank you that hope stirs us forward.  Thank you that hope has assisted in producing a vaccine. Above all thank you that Jesus is Hope. We pray the words of Paul asking that you, “the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit we may abound in hope” (Romans 12:12). AMEN.

With care and in prayer,