A Picture of Hope

imageI saw a picture of hope today. I captured it on my iPhone and wanted to share it with you.

It’s a picture of hope for me in particular, but it represents real hope for you as well.

Last week I shared with you how much I am enjoying having time to work in my yard (I don’t have a lawn yet, but I’m hopeful about it as well). If you would like to read that post, you can find it here.

As I worked in the yard, I saw this picture of hope. It’s a tiny Southern Wood Fern. I hope to line my driveway with them.

Several weeks ago I had a friend who dug some up and gave them to me. It was a labor of love.

The problem was that I was very busy and simply didn’t have time to plant them. They looked awful, and I was afraid they had died.

I planted them anyway. The little leaf I saw today is the first sign that they will live–and thrive. I certainly hope so. I have the whole length of my driveway to plant!

Jesus used a similar picture to teach you and me about hope as well. Not just that plants will live and line your drive, but that you and I will live as God has promised in Christ. “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels–a plentiful harvest of new lives” (John 12:24). Jesus used that saying to point His disciples toward the hope to be found even in His death. While they couldn’t see the hope immediately, three days later it made sense.

A lot of things don’t make sense to you and me right now. Our world and our lives seem to be out of sync, but God is at work, quietly, silently, and mysteriously working out His plan for those who follow Him.

Let us not lose heart. Let us remember the tiny leaf and remember that God is at work within us. Don’t quit, and don’t grow weary in doing well.

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

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3 Responses

  1. Galatians 6:9
    Remember it well.
    We sat with you in your office with heavy hearts and questions.
    You pointed us to Galatians 6:9.
    We remained focused there.
    Thank you!

  2. I did the same thing with ferns my mother dug up for me. But now they look great in one of the beds in my front yard! I looked for that same little glimpse of hope………

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