Hope

The Athabasca River railroad track at the mouth of Brûlé Lake in Alberta, Canada. Photo by Alcazar Mountain

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields
and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand. (Traditional Gaelic blessing)

Sitting in the doctor’s office, waiting for my son to finish some testing, I watch the people come and go. I’ve been here all day…watching. Singles, couples, families all filtering through each with their own story. To hear their stories, moments in their lives, to listen to the receptionists answer the phones, I am bombarded by the hopelessness found in so many faces and conversation.

However, there is a new baby sitting with her Mommy ensconced in pink making all the cute baby noises and faces. I think the Mom might think me strange. I can’t keep my eyes off this little beauty!

Hope in the eyes of a little one, she brings smiles to all who surround her..

Hope. We all need hope. We want the road to rise up. We want the wind to be at our back. We want the sunshine.

Somehow, if the road isn’t meeting us, the wind is to our front and the clouds cover the sun, we wonder, where is the hope?

Hold on. I think I’m missing something. I think this train of thought might be our problem. We are longing, LONGING to be through this trial. Be on the smooth road. Guided by a calm wind. Sun streaming on down. It makes it so much easier when people ask to our health and wealth to be able to respond describing the lovely road, the demur winds and beautiful sunshine. Right?

We want to know why we can’t find the sun. We want to find that road, freshly paved.

Did God ever answer Job’s questions of why? Nope. He never did. However, he sure did find out a whole lot about the storehouses of snow! We spend so much energy trying to figure out things that might not be revealed until our homecoming.

Psalm 46: ¹⁰God says, “Be still and know that I am God.
I will be ·praised [exalted] in all the nations;
I will be ·praised [exalted] throughout the earth.”

We always hear the first part of this verse. Yet, I think it is more important to realize that God is on His throne. God is in control and one day, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. That His praise will ring through the nations. That His praise will flow throughout the entire earth. And because of this truth, we know that we can be still.

We can be confident that one day the road WILL rise up to meet you.

Up to Baile na hAbha The narrow road rises from the stream to an industrial unit at Baile na hAbha. In the background on the left is the hamlet of Lisgardan.

The wind will, someday, be at your back, always…