What Does Hope Look Like?

Hope - to expect with confidence of future fullfilment

If you live somewhere which is perpetually green or at least mostly perpetually green, you might not get this.  Here is what hope looks like to me...

Those little green shoots poking out of the ground are the brave little daffodils which have started appearing in the last week outside our house.  Again, if you're in a location where there's even a bit of green year round, these tiny sprouts probably don't look very impressive to you, but they are to me.

I've been going outside to see them at least once a day, sometimes more.  They represent my hope for the future...I am hoping for green leaves, green grass, juicy tomatoes, warm breezes, tanned kids with scraped, dirty knees and nights of sleeping with the window open.

After a long, cold, dark winter, I am confidently expecting new life to arrive outside my door.  Soon.  Please let it be soon.

What else does hope look like to me?  Like this...


The Young'uns in the Fall of 2009.  Photo by Hailey Brautigam.

The Young'uns.  Five of our greatest gifts from God.  I have hope that "he who began a good work in you (them) will be faithful to complete it." (Phillipians 1:6)  Sometimes during the day, I look at them and get excited to see what their futures will be.  New lives.

Finally, for me, this is what hope looks like...

In the cross I see hope.  I confidently expect the fulfillment of my hopes soon...in Easter.  The best new life of all.