Hope springs eternal

Having a dog to walk is such a blessing. She gets me out and moving even when I feel pressured by many things to do.

Dusty’s facial expression is often a snapshot of what hope looks like. When she sees me preparing to go out in the car, she sticks close and fixes me with a gaze with a transparent message of hope. When I sit to relax in an evening, she will often stand in front of me, again fixing me with a message of hope until she hears those magic, to her, words – ‘Pig’s ear?’

So this morning is glorious again and I took her round the ‘wet walk’ at Crathes, lingering longer at each of the watering holes to fling sticks which she retrieved as in days of old – leaping in with abandon. Oh, that I might still be so agile when I reach 7 x 12 years old.

The trees, grand and sedate, stretch up into a blue sky and I reflected as I walked about hope. Images of the news from Syria clog my mind, and I can’t make sense of that in relation to hope. But our Christian joy is that we have hope in Christ, and so my thoughts continued on the theme of hope.

I became aware of the web of tree roots which vein every path. Vulnerable to every passing hiking boot and urinating dog, the dirt round each erodes and exposes increasing amounts of root.

Sometimes we put our hope in things that are vulnerable to erosion. We put all our hope on a horse, perhaps (!), or in a person, or a job, or an examination. Dangerous to make ourselves so vulnerable.

The Bible teaches that hope in God does not disappoint. Again and again the psalmist charges the reader to ‘put your hope in God / in the Lord / in his unfailing love / in his word’. Isaiah writes that ‘those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.’ (40:31)

In the New Testament there are many references to hope as an anchor, in Christ, the hope of glory. 

So back to the tree roots, and my thoughts return to Psalm 1, which says that the man who is blessed by God is ‘like a tree, planted by streams of water.’ Its roots are deep, stretching down to the water source, away from the vulnerability of life’s storms and assaults. 

Even when I think of the horrors and atrocities around the world, crimes that make no sense and cause every caring person’s spirit to cry out and groan in protest, I know that the most effective and sensible thing for me to do, is to put my hope in the Lord. Be it soon or be it later, He will avenge.

And in the meantime, my responsibility is to go on hoping in him, and doing all that I can do as his hands and feet and bank account to help others, as long as I draw breath.

So thanks, Dusty, for your hopeful look this morning. It’s taken me on a journey.