A God Of Hope

We put our hope in the LORD. He is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. Let your unfailing love surround us, LORD, for our hope is in you alone.

Psalm 33:20-22

One summer when the temperature rose to 100 degrees (it reached that for forty days!), I was out in the garden and spied my scraggly-looking zinnias. When I purchased them at the nursery, they’d been filled with vibrant, multicolored flowers. Now they looked almost dead.

I wanted to save those plants! So I went to great lengths in my plan to rescue them: I transplanted them under the oak tree to shield them from the blazing sun. I cut off the dead brown leaves and buds and trimmed the branches. I removed the weeds that had wrapped around the roots of the plants. Then I fertilized with the best plant booster, feeling optimistic about the balance of sun and shade in the new spot. With water and some tender, loving care, I hoped the zinnias would once again bloom.

Sure enough, within three weeks my zinnias had adapted to their new environment. The partial shade gave them a break from the heat, and the pruning I’d done paid off. For the rest of the summer and fall we had new zinnia blooms every day. Whenever I cut a few blooms to bring inside, I was reminded that one of the reasons we can put our hope in God is because he has hope for us, too. No matter how scraggly we are from the trials of life, God is everlastingly optimistic. He prunes away what is dead and removes the weeds in our hearts and lives. He feeds us from his Word and pours out the living water of his Spirit so we can bloom again. Sometimes he even transplants us to a healthier environment.

I encourage you to yield to the Master Gardener and depend on the one who is eternally hopeful about you and has bright plans for your future as you trust in him.

Thank you, Father, for protecting us and sustaining us in the hardest of times. Thank you for never giving up on us and for tending us as a careful gardener does his flowers.

God is able to accomplish, provide, help, save, keep, subdue. . . . He is able to do what you can’t.

Max Lucado(1955–), American pastor and author