Hope

Christian hope is not “I sure hope this happens,” but rather, “I sure hope this happens TODAY!” We have hope because the story that begins in the Garden ends in the Garden City of the new Heaven and the New Earth. The relationship we humans had with God is restored in the end, giving us the opportunity to once again live in peace and harmony with our Creator.

The Bible is the story of how we get from the Garden to the Garden City. It is his rescue plan in action. He knew from the beginning that we would choose to sin, and that sin would break our relationship with Him. He knew he would have to send his Son to provide a path to make things right again. He knew all that before he spoke the words “Let there be light!” to set everything in motion. He knew the pain of the rejection that would come. He knew the pain of hardships we would endure. He knew the pain that Jesus would have to suffer. He knew how difficult it would be to live a broken life without his direct fellowship.

But he loved us enough to set the plan in motion anyway, so that we might live an eternity with Him in Paradise.

Most of the plan, it seems, has been completed. No matter how bad things might seem, we have the hope, the absolute assurance, that his plan, as it has in the past, will prevail through the future, and we will rest in the Garden City with him.

As the psalmist wrote, and the singers sing: Our hope comes from the Lord our God, our Rock, our Salvation, our Fortress that cannot be shaken. (Psalm 62)