What does Hope look like?

Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long...Psalm 25:5

 

In the Old Testament book of Ruth, we meet a woman named Naomi, for whom all natural hope seemed to be lost. She had followed her husband to a foreign land where he and both of their sons died. Naomi was alone in that strange place, a woman with no resources, no hope of a future and no idea where to turn. Her only choice seemed to be to return to her home village. She said, "Don't call me Naomi (pleasant) anymore,call me Mara (meaning bitter) because the Almighty has made my life bitter. 

 

...my hope is in you all day long!

Yet even at this lowest point in her life, God had already begun to work to bring a restoring hope to Naomi. That hope began in the form of her daughter-in-law, Ruth. Though no one else would go with Naomi and no one else would help, but Ruth chose to remain. Ruth chose to see Naomi through that dark time in her life. Ruth had no answers to give and no special abilities to offer. Ruth simply stood by her friend.

 

God has also begun a work in every one of our lives when we find ourselves at the mercy of unexpected sorrow. In Jesus' time He told the story of  a man dying at the side of the road. Two very religious people passed by and did nothing, but God sent a good Samaritan who stopped and had compassion on him. The Good Samaritan didn't work any miracle, but he gave him the help and the hope he needed that day. The Good Samaritan was a person that man might have normally never accepted, but in his weakness he discovered him to be his only friend.

 

God knows just the time and just the way to touch us when it seems all hope is lost. God is not depending at all on our ability to figure things out or to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. God takes special delight in sending for our rescue by the most unlikely people. He comes to heal the broken. He is not only the one who can save us when we face disaster, he is our God who we learn to hope in all the day long!

 

        When all seems dark God' Hope remains