A Living Hope

Today's Reading: I Peter 1:3-5

What did you hope for when you were a child? A particular toy, a visit to a favorite place, or time to participate in a favorite activity probably tops the list of most people.

What do you hope for now? Good health, safety for family members, someone to love, or a meaningful life might top your list now.

The funny thing about hopes is that they may or may not actually come true. We can dream of something and wish for it with all of our being, and it still might not happen.

Peter tells us in today's reading that we have a living hope that comes through the resurrection of Christ. A living hope. Some of us might wonder how that is any different from any other hope that we've ever had. Especially if we've been disappointed by hope in the past.

What occurs to me is that other hopes we have in life are static hopes. They either happen or they don't...and often times we have no control over which way it goes. A living hope is something that seems active to me. It feels like something that is moving and breathing and is...well, alive.

That's Christ. He is our living hope. A hope that is built on the knowledge that He is alive, preparing a place for us in heaven, and He will return to take us there one day. No wondering if it will happen. No disappointments. No jumping through hoops to try to work it out on our own. Just a saving faith in Jesus, our living hope.

Now that's the best kind of hope there is!

- Holly Barrett