Good Hope

"May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who loves us and by His grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope."  

-2 Thessalonians 2:16

I have two cats buried in this little graveyard.  My first one lived to be almost 20 years old.  I hadn't realized it would be so hard to take her to the Vet the day I knew it was time for me to let her go.  I planted the daffodil bulbs to represent the everlasting love I felt for her.  That was 24 years ago and since then a second cat has joined her.  

Planting bulbs in Autumn is a gardener's testament to hope.  Hidden deep within the folds of the earth, the bulb sleeps during the long cold winter.  In fact, this is a necessary part to its springing to life once the soil begins to warm up in the Spring.

I looked up this verse in Ellicott's commentary concerning the hope that God gives us through His grace:  "These words [hope and grace] must be closely joined.  God gave us not only a consolation under present trials, but a sweet prospect in the future; but this sweet prospect belongs to us only 'in grace' (the literal version).  All our hope is based on the continuance of the spiritual strength imparted by the Father through the Son and Spirit."

When I used the concordance to understand the use of "good" to describe the hope we have I discovered that it meant "benefit."  God offers us the kind of hope that benefits us because it is His Grace that we receive.  We can trust that He works all things for our good as we wait.  We may not see the benefit in our lifetime, but we can trust that nothing is wasted.  The seeds have been planted and will see life when the warmth of His Love is spread across the land.

Father, I put my hope in You as you work in and through me.

Link to scripture:  Romans 8:28

Take Action:  My Quiet Spaces