Hope

Aren’t you glad for hope? When problems plague us, we can always hope that they will be resolved. When we aren’t feeling well, we hope that soon we will feel better. When finances get tight, we hope that our ship will come in and, in fact, we see the sails rising just above the horizon. Hope. It’s more than a wish. A wish is sort of wistful. I could wish that something was different, knowing full well that it won’t be, but hope–well, to me, that’s a positive thought or feeling based in a person and that person is Jesus. Remember the Lord said  with God all things are possible. That gives me something solid to hang onto whereas a wish is a pretty flimsy thing, like what you do when you see the first star of the evening.

We’ve been having cold weather for quite some time but I hope it will not last. In fact, I’m pretty sure it won’t. At this time of year, I begin getting seed catalogs and if anything can make me hope that spring is not far off, it’s those colorful pictures of vegetables, trees, and flowers. When I see the pretty illustrations, I forget how much water, weeding, and care those enticing plants will take. All I can see is how lovely they will be in my yard and  hope that they will flourish and bloom.

Hope is a writer’s daily fare. I am hoping for good news soon from a publisher. I hope he will be so ecstatic over this third Darcy/Flora mystery that he can hardly wait to get it in print and eagerly asks for more books. (Well, as long as I’m hoping, why limit myself?) I hope that Grave Shift will soon become a favorite book of millions of people. Do you see how the scope expands when a person is hoping?

And now, back to winter. For my dear and good friends in the South, just take a look at what is adorning my azalea bush and realize how blessed you are to be in a warm climate. By the way, I believe that hope has to have a certain tenacity. Look at the green leaves on my azalea. Yes, it is undoubtedly not fond of those icicles which are nestling in its limbs but it knows that one day the ice will be gone whereas the bush will remain–victory! And, that’s what hope leads to–victory over the blues, over illness, over a thin purse, over the ice.  Remember the beautiful azalea blooms last spring, and hunker down and hang onto Hope!