Romans 8:24-25 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
I was preparing to go to church when my 5-year-old grandson came into the room. “What are you doing, Grandma?” “Making myself look beautiful,” I responded with a wry smile. A few minutes later when I put down the curling iron, he said, “Your hair looks like meatballs!” Then he must have remembered my earlier comment because he quickly added, “But pretty meatballs!” His sweet sensitivity and attempt to redeem his unflattering remark had me in stiches. I imagine he was thinking of how his picture of “beautiful” differed an awful lot from the mess he saw.
Life, as well as hair, can look pretty messy at times, can’t it? Bob Goff writes, “If mess-ups were pushups, I’d be totally ripped.” No one has immunity from life’s chaotic side. Sometimes we get so stuck in the tangles we can forget the road to beauty requires time, tenacity, maybe a good dose of humor. And something else.
God knew our human tendency to lose focus in the moment, so he built something into the very fiber of our being to help us carry on. Something that enables us to navigate through the inevitable messes of fallen life. A something that urges us to not stop—but keep going. The God of all hope gives his people the intangible, sustaining overcoming power of hope (Romans 15:13).
Paul says we can’t see hope. If we could see it, it would cease to be hope. But hope’s hiddenness erupts every time we choose to stand on the promises of God during trouble. We may not be able to see how we’ll get through, but we know the ashes of disappointment will somehow, someway, turn into something beautiful. Because God says it will (Isaiah 61:3).
No matter what discouraging circumstance you might be facing, I pray you don’t squander the hope God’s planted in you. Don’t get stuck, but let hope do its work and lead you to the other side. Even if your hair looks like meatballs in the meantime…think of it as pretty meatballs!