The striking contrast in this photo caught my eye.
My first thought was surely this is staged or edited because how could this be, a nearly untouched cheerful-blue van parked on a street in Malibu, right in the midst of its fire-ravaged surroundings? A jewel that had somehow escaped the notice of the Palisades fires roaring near Los Angeles some weeks ago… (1)
I couldn’t help but think – – this looks like hope! A glimmer of color and life and not-all-is-lost amid the gray of smoke and ash.
And this: war-wounded Ukrainian soldiers… playing soccer!
“The players were chosen from among the thousands of Ukrainians wounded in the war. With limbs lost to Russian attacks, they gathered at a stadium in Kyiv over the weekend, ready to embark on a new contest: a soccer tournament.
…
With six outfield players and one goalkeeper on each side, they engaged in intense matches. Outfield players, all lower-limb amputees, and goalkeepers with upper-limb amputations, played without prostheses, relying on wrist clutches for control.” (2)
Wow! Seriously, wow!
Soldiers healing, moving forward in a way they had never imagined. Getting life back. Helping others get their living back. I can’t imagine all the underlying layers at play, invisible to a camera’s lens. It was another, literal, picture of hope among the ruins.
Humanity requires hope; as vital as oxygen, yet something beyond ourselves.
Something to open our eyes, awaken our hearts. To move our feet more determined than a shuffle. To get us up and get us out. To quicken our desire that there might just be more than what we see.
To hope.
Yet it’s also likely we’ve been crushed, disappointed, or betrayed in some old hope that really let us down and left us empty, the pain-filled void our determination to never make THAT mistake again.
But that tiny little yearning won’t stop whispering “there just has to be more…”
King Solomon gives us the words for this in Ecclesiastes 3:11, “…He has put eternity in their hearts…” He states this about God following the poetic list of dichotomies in verses 1-8, seasons and purposes considered beautiful in their own time—weeping, laughing, mourning, dancing, gaining, losing. In this roller coaster of regular living, hope gets jerked hard or lost at times, but yet it says He put the eternal hope of Himself right in the middle of it, and of us, in our hearts.
Did you know that there are promises or instructions in God’s word for every experience where our hope gets lost, weak, or emptied? Consider these and whisper ‘yes’ if at times they’ve been your own:
In fear
Darkness
Depression
Feeling lost
Alone or ignored
Bearing heavy burdens
Unclear paths
Barriers, blockages
Faith crisis
Thirsty, hungry, weak
Without purpose
Guilt, regret, shame
Destruction
Lack
Chaos
Uncertainty
Unloved
Stuck in the same old stuff
In the ashes
Guess what? This list was not composed from first looking at life situations, but in reading God’s word. In passage after passage I plucked out parts of what God was addressing; this list was made from God’s already-answered! Here’s just a sample; can you see any of the hope struggles He’s covered in these verses?
Psalm 27:13 – I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Isaiah 45:2 – I will go before you and make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron.
John 1:4,5 – In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
Colossians 1:13 – He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.
Hebrews 13:8 – Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Psalm 139:1-6
O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off.
You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.
You have hedged me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain it.
Christian believers are not immune to the brokenness of earthly life (thank you, Captain Obvious). But there’s also nothing wasted in God’s kingdom. The apostle Paul walks us through the rocky path of how hope is produced in us, in Romans 5:1-5, and ends with the encouragement in verse 5, “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
His love. His promise. His presence. His power. He IS our hope.
Just as these photos convey—soldiers healing, getting stronger, finding purpose or a sunny ray of blue amid the charred remains—no matter what we are facing, exciting or exhausting, we can choose to look for His promise and believe that He made it personal for ME—because He did!
The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
~Isaiah 58:11
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featured image by debra – metal flowers outside my window, cheerfulness and hope when days are gray
(1) AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill
(2) AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka