On a regular basis, I have been receiving catalogs from the mail-order seed and plant nurseries who entice me with their bright pictures of fully-developed fruits and flowers. It will be months before I can plant anything outside, and many more months—in some cases, years—before my produce will look like the pictures. Ah, but there's hope! That's what the companies are believing I will feel when I look at their offerings.
Hope is an essential ingredient in the spiritual realm as well. With eternity in Jesus' presence ahead of us—what the Apostle calls “our blessed hope”—we have every reason for hope. In fact, hope is one of the three things that endure throughout all of earthly life, eventually coming to fruition in sight. Such a long view might be less than encouraging were it not for its continual operation. The writer to the Hebrews wrote, “We who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner 
sanctuary.” (Hebrews 10:18, 19)
sanctuary.” (Hebrews 10:18, 19)That anchor of hope holds us steady through whatever the stormy seasons of life and around us. We access the real presence of God, even though we are not yet able to view Him. We are continually enlivened by knowing what will someday be ours to see clearly!
MaryMartha
Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. United States of America. All rights reserved.
Art from http://www.sxc.hu/
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