The Hope Set Before Us - May 18
Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 97, 99, [100]; PM Psalm 94, [95]; Ezek. 7:10-15,23b-27; Heb. 6:13-20; Luke 10:1-17
Today’s Reflection
In the same way, when God desired to show even more clearly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it by an oath, so that … we who have taken refuge might be strongly encouraged to seize the hope set before us. We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain, where Jesus, a forerunner on our behalf, has entered. —Hebrews 6: 17-20
Last night, I decided that my younger daughter and I needed to find a book to read together a few chapters a time to help us wind down before falling asleep. I used to be very faithful about always reading to my children before bedtime, but as they’ve gotten older and we’ve gotten busier with other things this tradition had fallen aside. As I scanned her bookshelves for a chapter book that we might both enjoy, I came across Kate DiCamillo’s book Because of Winn-Dixie. Now, I had never read the book myself, but my older daughter had, and I knew enough about it to know it’s a hopeful story about a girl and her dog, and that it takes place in Florida where we are from, so those all seemed like good reasons to give the book a try.
Why I thought Because of Winn-Dixie would be a hopeful story, I don’t know—but several chapters in, that is just what it is revealing itself to be. A 10-year-old girl, Opal, and her father, who she calls ‘the preacher’ have recently moved to a small Florida town called Naomi, where he is the pastor of Open Arms Baptist Church of Naomi. It is just the two of them, living together in the Friendly Corners Trailer Park, and as the story opens it seems to be summertime, so Opal hasn’t had the chance to meet anyone yet or to make any friends. One day Opal walks to the local grocery store, Winn-Dixie, to buy a few things for their next meal. When she arrives, she finds a chaotic yet wondrous scene of fruits and vegetables rolling around the produce section, and the manager and employees are up in arms, looking for the dog who somehow got into the store and set off all this chaos. The manager wants to know who let their dog into the store, and that if no one claims the dog and gets him out of there, he will send the dog to the pound.
And in that moment, Opal makes a decision that changes the course of the dog’s life and hers: she steps forward and claims the dog as her own. Not only that, but she gives the skinny, unkempt dog a name, Winn-Dixie, to make it seem more believable that the dog belongs to her. And, amazingly, when she calls Winn-Dixie by name to come to her, he does—and he walks back down the road with her, where she makes the case to her father to let Winn-Dixie join their family.
Before this turning point, Opal and her dad ‘the preacher’ are drifting and alone—the picture DiCamillo paints of their life together before Winn-Dixie arrives on the scene seems kind of hopeless. Opal’s mother left the family when she was just three years old, due to her struggle with alcoholism. Ever since then, Opal has seen her dad as being like a turtle, who occasionally sticks his head out of his shell, only to quickly withdraw back into his shell of being always preoccupied with writing his next sermon. And they’ve just moved to this new town, where Opal doesn’t have a friend—until this day, when Winn-Dixie becomes her furry best friend.
Winn-Dixie brings a sense of hopefulness into Opal’s life. She focuses on getting him cleaned up and making him part of the family as she and her dad sit there together on the couch with their new dog that afternoon. What was a lonely, hopeless situation becomes suddenly a life where there is hope for new adventures and better times for Opal and her dad.
Just as Kate DiCamillo wants her readers to feel a sense of hopefulness about how Opal’s life with Winn-Dixie will unfold, so too does the writer of Hebrews want those reading his letter to be filled with a sense of hope about how their lives with Christ and one another will unfold. “We who have taken refuge” in Christ are “strongly encouraged” in today’s passage from Hebrews 6 “to seize the hope set before us.”
But what is hope—and how is it something we can pick up and take on for ourselves? Maybe seizing hope looks kind of like what Opal does amidst that chaotic scene at the grocery store—she seizes the moment and boldly claims the smiling, homeless, furry creature before her as her own. And when she does, she finds that she has something secure to anchor her life to, another living being whose life is now bound up with her own—and in so doing, they find hope as they walk down the road and make a life together.
—Becky+
Questions for Self-Reflection
When have you found hope in a place or a time where it seemed unexpected? What about that situation helped you turn from a sense of hopelessness to a sense of hopefulness?
Daily Challenge
Spend a few minutes today finding other passages in scripture that point us toward finding hope in Christ. Which ones fill you most with a sense of hopefulness?