December 19
Hope is one of those words - like love - that loses its meaning and power with overuse. I can answer a question “I hope so,” but what do I mean? We hope for something to happen; we “hope for the best.” Are we trying somehow to manipulate God? If we hope for something hard enough, can we make God do what we want?
To make sense of hope, I had to think about a time in my life when something I hoped for did not happen. If I just think about all the blessings and gifts of my life - how can I explain the pain and sorrow endured by others? I think hope has to mean something more than wanting everything to turn out the way you want it to.
When I was 28 years old, recently married and full of expectations about my life, my mother died of cancer at the age of 62. She had been cancer-free for about 15 years, having had breast cancer and a radical mastectomy when I was in Junior High. We had the hope, and expectation, that she would continue to be healthy and live a long life. My profound hope was that she would live to know her grandchildren. We were blind-sided by this recurring cancer. It progressed quickly and we knew the prognosis was not good. She lived only a few months after the diagnosis. Obviously, the loss was devastating and it did not make any sense to me. I was angry at God when she died, but I did not feel despair. I did not lose hope. Even in the midst of sorrow, we hope and trust in God’s wisdom and love.
I do live in hope, even though there is plenty in our world to cause us to despair. When I try to visualize hope in my mind, I think of the famous NASA photograph of earth taken from outer space. There is so much we do not see or understand, but we can have hope.
Mary Muller
To make sense of hope, I had to think about a time in my life when something I hoped for did not happen. If I just think about all the blessings and gifts of my life - how can I explain the pain and sorrow endured by others? I think hope has to mean something more than wanting everything to turn out the way you want it to.
When I was 28 years old, recently married and full of expectations about my life, my mother died of cancer at the age of 62. She had been cancer-free for about 15 years, having had breast cancer and a radical mastectomy when I was in Junior High. We had the hope, and expectation, that she would continue to be healthy and live a long life. My profound hope was that she would live to know her grandchildren. We were blind-sided by this recurring cancer. It progressed quickly and we knew the prognosis was not good. She lived only a few months after the diagnosis. Obviously, the loss was devastating and it did not make any sense to me. I was angry at God when she died, but I did not feel despair. I did not lose hope. Even in the midst of sorrow, we hope and trust in God’s wisdom and love.
I do live in hope, even though there is plenty in our world to cause us to despair. When I try to visualize hope in my mind, I think of the famous NASA photograph of earth taken from outer space. There is so much we do not see or understand, but we can have hope.
Mary Muller