Today I reflect on hope as we near the end of the Church’s Jubilee Year of Hope.

Doug and I are excited to travel to Phoenix soon as retreat leaders, along with three other couples, for a marriage retreat for the newest cohort of couples who entered formation for the diaconate there. We find joy in bearing witness to God’s faithfulness in our lives. We hope to arrive safely, on time, and in good health, yet our hope will not falter should something unexpected happen because we hope first and foremost in God.

You are my hope, Lord; my trust, GOD, from my youth.

On you I have depended since birth; from my mother’s womb you are my strength; my hope in you never wavers.

Psalm 71:5&6

Yes, our hope is in God who is the source of all hope. We trust in God, confident that He will neither hurt nor disappoint us.

Recently, my new friend, Mary drove me to an event that the two of us supposed would be worthwhile, but when we got there we were disappointed to find it different from what we’d anticipated. What we really hoped for was to get to know each other better, so we left the event at the earliest opportunity and Mary treated me to an early lunch including good, honest conversation. We parted full of joy and hope for our budding friendship.

On another front, I’ve cause to hope for EvanMarie’s cancer battle because doctors were able to harvest more than eleven times the number of bone marrow cells they expected to. This means she won’t have to repeat the painful harvesting process again. She still has a long road ahead, but each day we hope anew in a faithful God whose mercies are “new every morning”.

And finally, my dear friend Gayle Somers sent a strikingly beautiful text in sharing the miraculous and long-awaited news of her newest grandson’s birth.

We are living in the ecstasy of hope becoming reality.

I responded: I love your delicious phrasing! “The ecstasy of hope becoming reality”. It tastes like Christmas!

To which she replied. Exactly! The flesh and blood proof of God’s unimaginable love.

Why should such an exchange flood my heart with joy? Joy mingled with humility and deep gratitude. Over the years Gayle and I have shared other joys and the deepest of sorrows. Perhaps that’s why we’er now free to delight with abandon at a turn of phrase which goes way beyond her gift for writing or my fascination with well crafted sentences. The exchange touched something primal, a grounding reality from which springs up inside me the very joy of the LORD. The birth of Gayle’s grandson stirred in her the same glorious wonder present at Christmas and her text opened a portal straight to my heart inviting me to share that wonder with her.

I once read that when we wait in hope we wait with joyful expectation. It’s reasonable then, to expect that you who’ve seen and touched the Baby who ultimately became Bread will savor a taste of the joy shared here. And if you’ve read this far and can’t quite relate to any of this, I invite you to hope in God. Unfathomable beauty and goodness await you too!.