Low Hanging Hope

While listening to the radio the other day, I heard a man describing the difference between his life and the life of his wife.  His wife had grown up in an intact family with wonderful parents and had an idyllic childhood.  He said that she was surrounded by "low hanging hope."

His life was different, he explained.  The complete opposite.  Every bit of hope that he was able to encounter in life he has to climb for.  

This pretty much describes the difference between me and everyone else who is part of my family.   I was the only one who had low hanging fruit in their lives.  All of my children, and my husband, came from situations where hope was something you had to work hard to find.

I don't know which of those describes you -- whether you were a person who had hope right there near to you, or if you had to search high and low for it -- but I do know this:  As people of faith we need to be those who hold out hope for others.  We need to share with the people around us who do not have hope that it does exist and we need to teach them how to climb for it.

You know that I'm not in a place, personally, where hope abounds at the moment, but I do, based on past experience, know that it exists.  I know that it comes at the end of, and in the midst of, our suffering, even when we least expect it.

My prayer for you today is that hope will show up... .that God will reveal to you a promising glimpse of the future -- and that you will share that with others.