“Hope Deferred is Still Hope”
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. ~Proverbs 13:12
It’s early in 2020, and for some reason in the first 10 days of the new year I’ve seen friends around me experience great loss. Two friends lost a parent. One lost a young nephew in his 20s. Another lost a granddaughter, just 10 months old. As my friends grieve, their hearts are sick with the loss of their loved ones. But they believe, as I do, that one day they will see their loved ones again. As the Proverbs 13:12 says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.”
My grieving friends know this truth: their hope in waiting to see their loved ones again may be deferred a long time, and this makes their heart sick, in the waiting. But they also know their longing will be fulfilled one day in the tree of life, eternal life in heaven one day, where they will see their loved ones, and sorrow, sickness and pain will be absent; only pure joy, love, and rejoicing will be present.
We know that Job went through terrible loss and suffering, yet the word hope appears in the book of Job nineteen times! Through all of his pain, Job still knew that he had hope in the one true God. We are promised in the Psalms, “No one who hopes in You will ever be put to shame,” and, “As for me, I always have hope, I will praise You more and more.”
Paul writes in Hebrews 6:19, “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.” Whenever I read that, I picture a ship’s anchor. Do you know when the ship drops anchor? When it’s home! We are assured that we are firm and secure in His grace and His love.
I’ve experienced loss at one time or another in my life… we all have. But longing for home, for that day when we see His face, hope will be fulfilled. We are promised that. I pray as you read this that you are not going through a devastating loss or a difficult time. But if you are, there is hope. Always.
