CiMos Expressions

The theme of this month’s posts is “Hope” and I am going to share some hope stories, hope quotes, and art that makes me think of hope. Hope is defined by several dictionaries as a feeling or a desire to see something happen. Bible.org says, “Hope in Scripture means a strong and confident expectation.” Oxforddictionaries.com has set off a creativity siren in my spirit. The oxforddictionaries.com, connects sounds and texture to hope so I am going to share tidbits from them as well as share a few stories about various ways people have found hope in what appears to be hopeless situations.

Oxforddictionaries.com – hope

• Definition 1.1: A person or thing that may help or save someone.
• Definition 1.2: Grounds for believing that something good may happen.

Zayla sat on the patio with her Bible and prayer journal. She had stepped outside to watch the sunrise after a long night caring for her husband. Mark was in the final stages of his battle with kidney cancer and night-time was when they spent time reflecting over his life and their 13 year marriage. The dark circles under her brown, teary eyes showed the toll the last six weeks since he became bedridden, had taken on her. “Lord, how am I suppose to do this?” she prayed as she leaned back in her seat closing her eyes, letting the tears slip down her face. She sat with her eyes closed for a few minutes while a gentle August breeze caressed her face.  She knew it would be a couple of hours before their three children got up to start the day. So she enjoyed the quiet of the morning before opening her Bible.

As Zayla opened her Bible she prayed for help and was led to 2 Corinthians 1. When she began to read, she began to understand that God was listening and understood. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction.” She paused, “Yes, Lord. Comfort is what I need right now. I am so tired. The children are going to need me to be strong in all this. Thank you for being my comfort.”

Zayla continued to read, “So that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

Zayla gasped as she realized that her discomfort wasn’t about watching her husband waste away with cancer. It wasn’t about her children being without their father. God had a purpose that really had nothing to do with how she was feeling at the moment, but it had everything to do with what God was going to do in the future. Zayla found hope for her desperate situation in her Bible. She found the energy to register her children for school, take them school shopping, and face Mark’s death. They survived the funeral and went on to live a new life.

 

Zayla struggled with depression from time to time, but when she was at her darkest, she would always turn to the scriptures. One day while sitting in the car waiting during a break between the college classes she was taking, she debated skipping the next class in favor of going home to shut the drapes and have a good cry. Depression was closing in like a thick fog. She closed her eyes, thinking to take a nap. Before she could fall asleep she felt the need to read her Bible. She opened to Isaiah 43:18 and read, “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it will spring forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Zayla knew then that going home was the last thing she needed to do. God had once again given her hope to keep moving forward.

 

Move forward is what she did.