Hope

​HOPE
We use the word "hope" frequently ie: I hope it doesn't rain today.  What we are saying that we have an anticipation of future things, a desire for something to happen (or not to happen).  What are we hoping for, health, wealth, peace, an end to the current situation? Or do we think that our situation is hopeless?  

I am reminded of Noah, a man who had very little reason to hope for the future.  His name means comfort, but he was not comforted in his lifestyle.  Think about it, he was on this boat with all those animals, just the sounds of them would have been disturbing, let alone the smells.  As that vessel full of living creatures rocked and rolled on the sea, I wonder if Noah (or Mrs. Noah) ever got seasick or a feeling of hopelessness or desperation in their situation?  Noah had hope for a better future or he would not have sent the dove out to search for land.  Perhaps one morning he woke up miserable and a bit nauseous when God gave him the thought to send out that bird.  After the first time he sent out a bird and it didn't come back he might have lost hope that he was ever going to get off that floating zoo.  But he tried again.  Just imagine that moment when Noah's hope turned into reality when that lone dove returned clenching a small single olive branch in its beak.  Just a little spark of hope must have arisen in Noah, but it only takes a spark to start a fire burning.   

What about us today, are we like Noah standing on the deck of that ark, looking at an endless sea with no end to our situation insight?  We can have hope in the seemingly hopeless situations of life.  We can have the same source of hope and faith Noah had.

​David had that same hope too, he knew he could put his hope in God as he said in Psalm 71:5, "You are my hope, Lord God".  In the painful seas of life, God can heal us and give us deep peace.  Incidentally, olives and doves have been a sign of hope and peace since the days of Noah.  Where is your olive branch, God has it ready to send you?