Hope Springs Forth

Hope is often a fleeting thing.  We use the word casually, interchangeably with the word “wish,” to describe something anticipated.  These hopes-wishes are soon realized and then sometimes … not at all.

 

Throughout the Old Testament, the Jewish people experienced bouts of oppression, loss of freedom, then watched their beloved Jerusalem and temple burned and brought to ruin.  The Book of Lamentations is Israel’s song of sorrow as they mourn the latter tragedy: “How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow has she become, she who was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces has become a slave.” (Lamentations 1:1).  Oh, America – will this also be your lament?  Dare we imagine the grand dreams of those who first stepped onto her soil?  What is … is, but it need not forever be.  There is Hope.  The great and present tragedy is America has yet to declare as Israel did, “The crown has fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned!” (5:16). God stands ready and willing to restore this nation in Christ Who is the eternal Hope for all men.  Israel's song "Restore us to Yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored" (V.21), must become our own.  It begins in the heart of every American, in the heart of every leader and citizen.  It is there the Hope for all springs forth!