April 2010
“…and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” Romans 5:5
I went walking in Lafayette Square last week. As I write this, we are just on the cusp of spring, and there is more brown than green showing in the park. So I was encouraged by the bits of green shyly peeking out from under a sheaf of dead leaves. This green was slender new reeds of grass poking out of the earth; they looked far too delicate to push through the heavy mass of leaf matter that laid like a heavy blanket upon them.
Yet, these determined little green needles were coming up anyway. This week, they had pushed through the brown blanket, and were standing rather proudly, I mussed, above the dank darkness, reveling in, and being filled by, the warm sunshine.
Hope is like that. It starts as just a tiny seed that, nurtured just a bit by God’s breath, breaks open and begins growing, imperceptivly at first. The darkness actually provides a place where it can be nurtured, until the day it punches through into the light, and God’s presence working in our lives becomes visible to us and others.
The tomb where Jesus was laid was dark. No light reached him. Yet, like tender green shoots of spring, hope was born in the darkness and began to stir. The Apostle Paul declared “hope does not disappoint us”. That is a stubborn and glorious truth of God’s presence in our lives; Hope, planted within us and nurtured by God’s breath, triumphs over darkness. God’s light can permeate any heavy mass under which we have become buried, calling forth something new, resilient, and beautiful to unfold. God’s breath…God’s holy spirit is working within us.
Is there a place of darkness in your life? Invite God’s spirit to permeate it, soak through it, and use it to nurture hope. Because hope will not disappoint. Hope triumphs over darkness. Let this be our prayer as we await for hope to burst into the sunshine.
Grace and peace+
~Pastor Sharon