Rejoicing in Hope

I will be co-hosting a baby shower today for a wonderful woman who chose life a few months ago. Our Cities4Life team intervened when P showed up to abort her child. She was moved by the words of hope and help, came on our Monroe HELP  Mobile Ultrasound RV parked on the curb of the abortion center, and when she saw her baby, knew she could not take his life. Like nearly every mother who stops and talks with us before aborting, she told us she felt she had no other choice but abortion. She had no hope of the life she had planned for herself unless she aborted. But God is a God of Hope, and His plans are always best. In the end, P agreed. This baby shower today is a celebration of Hope.

Switching gears to another hope, I had hoped to kayak this weekend, but my one free day in the next two weeks was yesterday. The rain started early and went on all day. So instead of kayaking, I decided to play with a new art program that was on my iPad. When I started drawing with it, my lines were wavy and I could not make them straight. I was distraught since NONE of my art programs are working well on my iPad and half the reason I got the iPad Mini is so I could draw, especially when traveling. The iPad Mini is as small as a sketchbook and light. But if I can’t draw a straight line....

I googled ‘iPad Mini and wavy lines’. It turns out, I am not the only one with this issue. The tutorial I read gave the technical details why the processor and size of the iPad Mini makes drawing straight lines slowly difficult. The trick is quick, confident strokes. PRACTICE the tutor advised. It can be done, but it takes practice.

Sigh.

However, and this is KEY, the tutor gave me HOPE. My Bible study this morning on that very topic pointed out that we do not hope for things we cannot even conceive of. We hope for things that are real, tangible, that could conceivably be satisfied. We may not yet see them, but we can conceive of their possibility, however remote. 

Hebrews 6:17-19 says:

Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath.

‭God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain,

In the context of those verses, God had made promises with an express purpose: to give us hope as an anchor for our soul. When the tumultuous waves of adversity slam against our weary hulls, God has assured us so that we will NOT be washed away. He anchors us in His promise of an eternity where all things will be made new, what we have lost will be restored, and redemption will trample destruction.

This is perhaps what happened in the heart of the woman upon whom we will be lavishing two years of all her baby’s needs in the baby shower today. There is a hope that is greater than all her plans. God will bless this choice to follow Him in this very critical decision for her child. He has promised to all who follow Him a future and a hope, plans to prosper and not to harm. My prayer is that P will grab a hold of this promise, and choose to place her faith and her life once and for all in Christ, the author of all Hope.

Meanwhile, I too was seized with hope. I CAN draw a straight line. I WILL persevere and overcome the limitations of this iPad Mini. I lost all track of time and spent three hours on the simple drawing above. In the end, not only could I draw a straight line, but I created a little piece of art that I was happy with. I added a verse using that same wonderful art program, and felt I understood the essence of hope a little better.

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Romans 12:12 

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

Romans 15:13   

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.

Jeremiah 29:11 

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.