Never Ending Hope!

I recall a time in my youth when my brother, Griffin, and I were up in the hayloft of our old barn, picking peanuts from bales of hay that had been stored there after the peanut crops had been harvested late in September and into October. To get into the loft, we had to climb an inside attached wooden ladder that led straight up the wall into a small square opening. The steps of the ladder were two-by-four wooden planks that extended beyond the parallel vertical bars of the ladder. The edges of those planks were sharper and more dangerous than we knew. Up in the loft, Griffin got too close to the square opening and fell through!  His head hit the corner of one of the planks and it cut a deep gash in his left temple causing blood to flow profusely.

Griffin, who was about seven at the time, was convinced that he had breathed his last! He began shouting hysterically, “I don’ killed myself!”  “I’m dead! I know I’m dead!”  He ran from the barn to the house insisting that he was no longer among the living. Daddy and mama quickly got him in the car and rushed him to the town doctor in Halifax. 

Dr. White had a great bedside manner. No matter what health condition anyone brought to him, he would claim to have experienced it.  So, he calmly shared with Griffin about the time he also had fallen from a hayloft and knocked a hole in his temple. Listening to the doctor, Griffin, who had gone from believing he was dead to thinking he would surely not survive, suddenly had hope—hope that he would live! He survived just fine but has a scar from the stitches to this day.

Like Dr. White, who always seemed to know what to say to change the gloomy outlook of his patients, we have Someone who can transform our dark, dismal circumstances and lead us into the light of His wonderful truth! He instructs us, saves us, and give us continuous, never-ending hope! 

As David exclaimed, “All day long I put my hope in you.” No part of the day is uncovered in that! No condition or circumstance is left uncovered with hope! Your upcoming surgery, your wayward children, that rude supervisor or challenging employee, that hard-to-reach goal, all are covered! Even if, like Griffin, you are convinced that it is the end, know this! No situation is hopeless! We have hope for all matters and all times!   

Focus Quote: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”                      

 –Romans 15:13 ESV