Hope Sustains Us

Leaning on Hope

“What oxygen is to the lungs, such is hope to the meaning of life.”
Emil Brunner

Watching tractor trailers flying through the Texas sky on the news last night jogged my memory—it’s April. Last April was the most destructive in Alabama’s history, with more than 100 tornadoes touching down in the state. I knew what the residents of Dallas were thinking as 18-wheelers soared above them—total disbelief. Your eyes see what your brain simply cannot make sense of. And, just as the folks in Alabama and Missouri did last year, today Texans will begin the backbreaking work of picking through the debris to find what remains of their life-stories—the family photos, the birth and death certificates, grandmother’s quilts. Each time they find some small treasure they will express delight and renew their efforts. Human beings are strange and wonderful creatures sometimes. In the face of unbelievable adversity, we find inside ourselves an unwavering flame of hope.

There is a story in my Lenten devotional this morning about Japan’s earth quake last year. On the same day that 2,000 bodies of the dead washed ashore in Miyagi, a four-month-old girl in a pink bear suit was found alive in the rubble. That one small girl gave rescue workers enough hope and energy to carry on in the face of overwhelming loss.

I’m not sure where that inner spark comes from, but I am certain that it sustains us through the worst insults that life dishes up. Hope keeps us alive. And more than that, hope gives us the drive and energy to get up and do what has to be done. I know Texans will get through this day because hope will carry them, and friends and neighbors and total strangers will surround them to help.

In the spirit,
Jane