Earnest Expectations

Baby Hannah, who arrived July 24, 2011

Hope, hope, hope.  The Bible talks a lot about hope, and the question that gets raised is—what does that mean?  Is it something we think might happen?  Wish that it would?  Fear it might not? How much chance is contained in that word?  The Sunday school answer says that hope is more like happiness about a sure thing.  Our “hope” in Christ is our earnest expectation, our solid belief that what He has promised He is able also to perform.

I was thinking about all this a few weeks ago while we were waiting for my sister’s baby to make her grand entrance.  The due date came and went.  Each subsequent day brought the thought, “Maybe today!”  I remember going past my due date with Baby #2.  It was almost all I could think of the entire day.  “Now?  No? Then how about now?”  Like sitting at a red light waiting for it to turn green.  (Nine days later, my niece finally put in an appearance--to the delight of the watching world.)

The point is that our “hope” is not that feeling of “Wouldn’t it be really nice if I had a baby?  I wonder if I ever will?”  No one who looks at a woman nine months pregnant wonders if it maybe, might be in the cards for her to bear a child.  It becomes not a question of if but a question of when.

And isn’t that true of Christ’s promises!  We don’t need to hope in the sense of our current American usage of that word.  We don’t need to feel that the Bible’s truths may or may not prove unassailable.  We don’t need to pine for the possible return of Christ, but to confidently expect it, not wondering if but when!

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”