Hope Sure

Today I am writing while I am sitting next to my oldest son.  My other two are napping, and I’d really like for him to be napping, too, mostly for my sanity later on this evening.  But, he’s at the age where it’s hard to make him take a nap, so I’m settling for quiet time on the couch.

Before he climbed up next to me, he asked if he could play with his new train set.  After I told him he couldn’t because his siblings are napping and the train is loud, he said, “Mama, I hope sure I can play when they wake up.”

He’s been saying things like that a lot lately.  “Mama, I hope sure I can have a Christmas cookie for snack.”  Or, “Mama, I hope sure Baby Jesus can come to Bethlehem soon.”

Usually my kids mixed-up vocabulary causes giggles in our house.  But this one has me thinking.  It reminds me of a discussion we had in Bible class not too long ago about the use of the word hope.  The Greek word we translate as hope, according to our Bible study leader, is more of a confidence of what will happen.  It’s like saying, “Hope sure.”

The writer to the Hebrews says, “Now, faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”  (Hebrews 11:1)  This is the kind of hope we need to have.   God promises us many blessings, and we can HOPE or we can hope that they come true.

After the tragedy that took place this last Friday, I’ve been praying a lot more for our country.  I am praying that God comforts the families who lost loved ones.  But I am also praying that he use this as an opportunity to bring more people to him—to give those people HOPE.

“I know that my Redeemer lives and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.  I myself will see him with my own eyes—I and not another.  How my heart yearns within me!”  (Job 19:25-27).  This is the HOPE that all believe in Jesus have.