I didn’t know where I was, but I was standing on a vast plain beneath a leaden sky. The ground was hard and the grass was dead. The light, dim and dreary, revealed no colors except the everlasting gray. The air was stale and hot and barely breathable. There was no sound, either of birds or insects or wind. There was no evidence of life—somehow I knew there was none. Life, with all its richness of color and sound and relationship was gone forever. But death was gone, too. There would be neither sleep nor death to relieve the despair of this existence. Prayer was useless; hope was extinct.
Abruptly, I was elsewhere. I saw, streaking toward me through the swaying, gleaming grass, a black and white dog. Her coat was shining and her eyes were full of joy. Hope rushed back into my soul, and I woke up.
Hope- what is it, and why do humans need it? The Oxford English Dictionary defines hope as “a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen.” It would seem that modern linguists equate hoping with wishing:
I wish it would stop snowing.
I hope it will stop snowing.
I have a strong desire and expectation for it to stop snowing because it is May!
But what if it doesn’t? What if it snows all through winter and is still snowing in June? What if it never stops snowing? What then? Is all hope gone?
Back in the day, circa 1828, that is— Noah Webster wrote: “. . . hope differs from wish and desire in this, that it implies some expectation of obtaining the good desired, or the possibility of possessing it. Hope therefore always gives pleasure or joy; whereas wish and desire may produce or be accompanied with pain and anxiety.” Mr. Webster attached four scripture references to his definition; apparently his concept of hope included the idea of trust in God.
On the first Sunday of Advent, we light the hope candle to remind us of God’s promises to send a savior. Many would consider this an archaic concept: aren’t we all just fine? No. We definitely are not fine, and it only takes a moment of reflection to figure this out. Things are out of whack in our world; there is trouble within us and without, and there is no wishing it away. Nor is hope to be found here. Hope must come from outside. And that is the reason we light the hope candle— as a reminder that, no matter how hard things get, hope has come. For God “has sent the son to be the savior of the world” (1 John 4:14).
