Moving Forward in Hope

When my grandfather got older, he often kept a cane nearby to help him steady his feet. This was hard for me to accept. The idea that someone I saw as incredibly strong, often bearing the weight of others, would now need assistance bearing his own weight was so painful it hurt.

When He passed on to Heaven, I was the one who ended up with his cane. I was thinking about that cane today and all the images it brought to my mind. Somehow those images aren’t of sickness or being weak, but rather, dependence, trust, and the hope of going somewhere.

It’s the reminder that the body may be weak, but if the spirit is willing there is more than a possibility that you’ll get where you are going.

It’s the idea that it’s okay to need some help in this life. In fact, every sojourner needs a good staff for those steep places that often seem so hard to scale.

The more we realize we can’t do it alone, the more we end up trusting God to be our strength. We learn to surrender our weary hearts and ask a brother or sister to allow us to lean on them for just a moment.

Friend, moving into the tail end of this year, I can’t think of a better staff to pick up and plant in the next hard place than HOPE.

Hope that God goes with us.

Hope that He works all things for our good.

Hope that no weapon formed against us will prosper, and so much more.

This year I’ll take my papa’s cane out and prop it against the mantel as I often do, but I know, this time, it will bring to mind the image of moving forward with the hope of Heaven ahead.

“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful“ (Hebrews 10:23, NIV).