This poor plant experienced some serious trauma before I brought it inside. At one time, I might have counted it beyond help and tossed it out, but I’ve seen too much survival to give up on it. And it didn’t give up on itself. It’s blooming.
This is a great illustration of what we are capable of. We can be chewed on by pests, frozen out by heartless people, flooded with challenges, and drained dry when our love isn’t returned. From the outside, we may look totally broken down, but that doesn’t have to mean we’re out of the race. We must never give up.
Only a short distance from this bridge, over which I’ve passed numerous times through the years, lies the entrance to New Hope Cemetery. This is an old cemetery with a fascinating collection of aged headstones. This is a rustic cemetery and it holds the earthly remains of some of my nearest and dearest.
Too many times, we’ve followed a hearse over this bridge, taking a loved one to their final resting place. Several times, we’ve crossed the bridge to visit the graves of those we’ve not seen in so very long. The last time I was there–the day I took this picture–we were “visiting” Mother.
You’d think this bridge would represent loss to me, would inspire pain, but it doesn’t. Why?
The answer lies in the cemetery’s name–New Hope. Yes, we’ve laid our loved ones to rest here, but I know that in each and every case they were born again and destined for Heaven. For them, and those of us who expectantly wait to see them again, this place offers hope indeed–hope of that new life, true LIFE that will never end–eternal life in the very presence of God, surrounded by those we love so much…HOME.
So this picture shows a path of hope, a man-made construct that bridges the past and that glorious future as we follow the road home.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
I know I am not alone in counting this among my favorite scriptures. It seems I see it more and more in email signature lines, on plaques, and in a variety of other places. I love it in the King James. “I know the thoughts that I think toward you…”
Whether the word is translated as “thoughts” or “plans”, I inevitably go back to the beginning. I mean, I go back to the literal beginning- “In the beginning God created…”
Consider it. He said, “Light be,” and light was, yet even before He said the words, He thought the thought; He made the plan. God’s thoughts and plans have immeasurable power. God’s thoughts and plans result in an outpouring of His creativity. God’s thoughts will have results; His plans will come to pass. Bank on it.
And He thinks these thoughts towards me. He has these plans for me. Me! Can there possibly be anything more reassuring than to know that the One who created the universe is thinking about and making plans for me, and that His plans are to give me a future and a hope?
